STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY FROM CIRCULAR ECONOMY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

With the fast-technological development in the recent past, automobile sector is continually adding to the stockpiles of discarded vehicles not only in developed but in developing parts of the world too. To overcome the problem of scarcity of presently available resources in future, the optimal strategy, emerging under the banner of ‘Circular Economy (CE)’, would be to keep the product-related resources such as material/energy etc., always in circulation’ so that the ‘waste’ is either eliminated or at least is minimized. As some of the industries have already started practicing it at the global level, the underlying idea behind CE is to create products which are durable, easy to reuse, remanufacture or recycle and at the same time profitable. In the present research work, in all, there were five studies. The first one made an attempt, through a content-based systematic literature review, to seek an answer to the research question: ‘Has the CE and Reversed Supply Chain Logistics (RSCL) nexus changed significantly under the impact of the IT tools and their applications?’ Spanning over sixty-three data sets, the analysis was undertaken in terms of such features as data source, latency, data fields, work typography and the employed research tools. In the last five years or so, how the status of the CE-RSCL system has emerged under the shadow of the recent developments in the IT tools is discussed. Finally, conclusions indicating research gaps are drawn and directions for future research are portrayed. The second study explored the research problem: ‘Have CE and its respective components’ applications impacted significantly the automobile sector and what is the future scope of research in the concerned fields'. The literature spanned over around a decade containing a total number of 163 research papers was reviewed Computations were made to know in what proportions the specific ‘characteristics’ of different structured ‘categories’ contributed to the reviewed matter. The thematic contents included CE and its components, CE-Information Technology nexus, CE-automobile sector, and End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) concept and CE. Based on the review, research gaps and the challenges ahead are demarcated, conclusions drawn and the future scope discussed. The third investigation involved integration of circular economy and Industry 4.0 components like blockchain technology that results in a faster induction of ‘circularity’ and leads to new strategies on resource utilization, making the world more sustainable. It is a ‘key-enabler’ in meeting circularity challenges of the future. The literature pertaining to the blockchain-based exploration revealed research gaps in a yet unexplored area of how ‘circularity’ building gets impacted by blockchain, especially in the Indian auto sector. Moreover, non-availability of its evaluation tool also necessitated the present research. The main objective was to explore, from the auto stakeholders’ perception viewpoints, the potential of the application of blockchain technology with special reference to the issue of ‘sustainability and circularity’ in the Indian context. The study involved a literature search, building a new circular economy-based blockchain model for the auto industry, and, finally, a case study in which the hypotheses about circularity and blockchain technology nexus impacts on the Indian auto industry were structured and tested through a research instrument, designed and sent to 45 auto stakeholders for evaluation of the said nexus. The data analyzed through the Best-Worst method revealed the ‘potential’ (weight: 0.393) and ‘application’ (weight: 0.262) impacts on CE are the most important yardsticks. The proposed model appears to be more reliable and secure and might help the managers vi of auto firms in forging new circularity-based strategies to exploit I4.0 efficiently. The fourth investigation was undertaken in light of the recent emergence of Industry 4.0 and the circular economy paradigm which significantly influenced various manufacturing sectors, including the automotive industry. These developments pose new challenges and issues in creating a digital and sustainable future. In response, this study was conducted to address the research gaps in the perception-based investigations, specifically in the context of the Indian automotive industry. The study explored the impacts of the circular economy-Industry 4.0 nexus on the Indian automotive industry from the perspectives of stakeholders: 98 manufacturers and 294 end-users. Perception data were collected through a structured questionnaire and subjected to statistical analysis using factor analysis (both exploratory and confirmatory) to obtain the best-fit model. The findings indicated that manufacturers recognized the potential impact of the circular economy-Industry 4.0 nexus on waste reduction, post-consumption product management, and asset analysis. On the other hand, end-users perceived that new strategies and machine tool-related aspects are best implemented through Industry 4.0 technologies. Additionally, the study applied the technology-acceptance model (TAM) to bridge the research gap and discussed other enabling factors of the circular economy-Industry 4.0 impacts in the automotive industry. The novelty of this work lay in the first-time application of TAM in the Indian automotive field. The study aimed to identify Industry 4.0-application factors affecting operational efficiency in the circular economy-oriented automotive industry, thereby aiding policy planners and managers in developing appropriate CE strategies for the digital manufacturing world of tomorrow. Finally, the fifth and the last study examines the management of vehicular waste returns in the rapidly growing Indian automotive industry. Perspectives from 96 manufacturers and 294 end-users were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, along with cluster analysis. The findings provide unique insights into returns and recovery management, contributing to the understanding of environmental sustainability and the circular economy. With implications for the eco-friendly automotive sector, particularly in India, this research advances knowledge in returns and recovery management, promoting environmental sustainability in the industry. The end of the thesis presents the summarised version of the present research work through a flow diagram illustrating an overall pictorial relationship of the five investigations constituting the thesis work.