Businesses are gradually extending their attention towards including sustainability activities in their business practices. Current linear approaches are outdated and new long-term sustainable options are being investigated. Circular economy (CE) has gained momentum during the past few years after the publication of a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2013. Since then, scientific articles have presented different aspects of the concept, proposing various frameworks on how to address circular product design or circular business models. However, a framework visualizing CE from a holistic perspective and how it should be implemented is lacking. Therefore, this master’s thesis aims at developing a practically applicable framework for CE on a strategic level, as well as a tool for implementing circularity practices in an organization. Since large manufacturing industries seem to find it especially difficult to change from linear to circularity practices, the focus of this study will be on large manufacturing companies. Previous literature within the area was analyzed to interpret existing findings and to enable a creation of a new holistic CE framework. A case study was carried out to enable analyzing theoretical findings with a practical case. The conducted studies resulted in the development of a holistic CE framework, presenting areas necessary to address to accomplish a successful CE implementation. An implementation model was also developed, based on the stage-gate process, as well as the British Standard for implementing CE. The case study results show a status quo based on categories within the developed CE framework. The proposed implementation tool along with three defined focus areas to guide the case company’s continued transition was defined as 1) to introduce product-service systems to close resource loops and increase control of company resources, 2) to improve organizational culture to increase knowledge and thereby also the company’s market position, and 3) to establish product-focused partnerships to strengthen value chain relations.

The manufacturing industry stands in front of huge challenges. Negative environmental impacts must be drastically reduced and new sustainable products must be introduced at an accelerating pace. Coping with these challenges are significant in order to deal with the increasingly emerging climate crisis. To slow down the climate crisis, the approach of circularity wherein the utilization and lifetimes of resources and materials are maximised with the aim to achieve a near perpetual closed material loop has gained a significant increase in attention. However, most research within circularity has emphasised on the product, especially practices occurring after being produced. A seldomly studied perspective involves exploring the realization of circularity within the production system. A clear description is lacking regarding what circularity in production systems actually constitutes of, and how this can be realized. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to expand the knowledge regarding the realization of circularity in production systems. To fulfil the purpose, this research was initiated by a literature review and a document study, which were conducted in order to describe which circularity practices exist in production systems, both form an academic and practical point of view. Subsequently were workshops with industrial experts within production systems held in order to identify challenges with realizing circularity in production systems. The literature review, document study, and workshops laid the foundation for support development, which was the final phase in the thesis. This included supporting the longevity of production systems by adopting circularity theories to cover production system, as well as investigating how to analyse and evaluate circularity in production systems. The results from this were incorporated in a conceptual framework for circular production systems and in a tool for rapid assessment of circularity in production systems. / Tillverkningsindustrin står inför enorma utmaningar. Miljöpåverkan måste drastiskt minska och nya hållbara produkter måste introduceras i allt snabbare takt. Att hantera dessa utmaningar är betydande för att hantera den alltmer framväxande klimatkrisen. För att bromsa klimatkrisen har cirkularitet, där utnyttjandet och livslängden för resurser och material maximeras med målet att uppnå en nästan evig sluten materialslinga, fått en betydande uppmärksamhet. Hittills har forskning inom cirkularitet fokuserat på produkterna som tillverkas, framför allt under användningen av produkten. Ett sällan studerat perspektiv innebär att undersöka hur cirkularitet i produktionssystem kan uppnås. En tydlig beskrivning saknas gällande vad cirkularitet i produktionssystem egentligen innebär och hur detta kan realiseras. Därför är syftet med denna avhandling att utöka kunskapen om realiseringen av cirkularitet i produktionssystem. För att uppfylla syftet initierades denna forskning av en litteraturgenomgång och en dokumentstudie. Dessa genomfördes för att beskriva arbetssätt kopplat till realiseringen av cirkularitet inom produktionssystem, både från en akademisk och praktisk ståndpunkt. Vidare hölls även workshops med experter inom produktionssystem för att identifiera utmaningar med att uppnå cirkularitet inom produktionssystem. Litteraturgenomgången, dokumentstudien och workshops lade grunden för stödutveckling, som var den sista fasen i avhandlingen. Denna inkluderade att stödja produktionssystemens livslängd genom att anpassa existerande teorier om cirkularitet till produktionssystem, samt att undersöka hur man analyserar och utvärderar cirkularitet i produktionssystem. Resultaten från detta införlivades i ett konceptuellt ramverk för cirkulära produktionssystem och i ett verktyg för snabb utvärdering av cirkularitet i produktionssystem.