PhD Studentship - Data-driven Analytics and Modelling of Circular Supply Chains for Net Zero Manufacturing

This 3 year PhD will be full-time. Students will receive a tax-free stipend of £ 19,237 and a tuition fee waiver. Students are additionally eligible for funding to support their research, development and conference attendance. The start date is January 2025. This is for UK students only.

Net emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) by human activities, which includes manufacturing, must approach zero in order to stabilize global mean temperature. With 2023 recorded to be the hottest year till date, a credible and effective plan is urgently needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change, particularly for industrial production. Research has shown that >45% of GHGs derives from products and services (Scope 3), and that a high proportion of embodied carbon, materials and value are lost or wasted at the end of a first lifecycle phase. While energy emissions are largely (and successfully mitigated) by renewable energy forms and carbon capture storage technologies, manufacturing emissions have been largely difficult to manage. This is due to the complexity of manufacturing supply chains; they are harder to reduce, as each manufacturing sector faces its own unique challenges and the lack of a tool kit designed from evidence from manufacturing product and value chain.

Circular Economy provides a framework to drive systemic innovation and transformational interventions in manufacturing through product-life extension, remanufacturing, and re-use. Implementation of CE in manufacturing requires a stronger evidence base to show both the economic and net zero opportunity and potential. To support this net zero manufacturing framework, the Circular Supply Chain paradigm advocates a shift in business practices from linear to circular models. This allows a recovery process that includes identifying and capturing additional value and reduction of carbon footprints in the manufacturing value chain. In existing studies, there is the absence of research that identifies the context, value and data of what informs circular supply chains and circular supply chains thinking into a net zero manufacturing. Within this context, this timely PhD will investigate how circular supply chains are designed and modelled to enable a net zero manufacturing future.

The main of the PhD will thus be to investigate the transformative opportunities for a circular supply chain and net zero manufacturing via identification of economic barriers (and other barriers), investigate the interventions needed to incentivize market acceptance of circular supply chains, theoretically define variables, value interventions and relationships required for an optimal circular supply chain environment simulation model.

Expectations from the PhD:

1. Review and map the landscape of circular supply chains and identify economic barriers to the implementation of circular supply chains from existing literature.
2. Review and map the modelling methodologies and different forms of data-driven analytics needed for circular supply chains and examine their applicability in the context of net zero manufacturing.
3. Develop, simulate and validate a Circular Supply Chain for Net Zero Manufacturing with appropriate simulation modelling tools.
4. Work in a team with industry partners and a wider body of stakeholders to understand and elicit requirements for decision-support tools for Circular Supply Chains and net zero manufacturing.

For further information on the project, please contact Dr. Okechukwu Okorie (okechukwu.okorie@manchester.ac.uk)

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