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2021 World Manufacturing Forum report coauthored by UNF professor

Dr. Gokan May, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Florida, served as a member of the editorial team for the 2021 World Manufacturing Report. The annual report serves as the benchmark in recommendations for the future of manufacturing.

“The key recommendations in the report serve as a call for action to all manufacturing stakeholders globally to work together towards a successful transition to circular manufacturing, enabled by digital technologies,” said May.

May was responsible for identifying, recruiting and interviewing experts to gather their insights which shaped the report. This year’s edition focused on digitally enabled circular manufacturing. The Report analyses the state of play in circular manufacturing, the potential of digital technologies to enable circular manufacturing, and policy and other enablers for circular manufacturing. The Report also outlines key recommendations, developed with a global group of experts, addressed to the manufacturing community and society at large to promote digitally enabled circular manufacturing.

This whitepaper and its key recommendations were recently presented and discussed at the 2021 World Manufacturing Forum. The Forum, entitled Digital Technologies as Key Enabler for Circularity: Perspectives on the Future of Manufacturing, was attended by manufacturing stakeholders from all over the world. The report is available to public on the WMF website.

The key recommendations by The World Manufacturing Foundation include:

  1. Promote a circular company mindset that embraces the opportunities of the circular economy and the enabling role of digital technologies
  2. Drive circularity through consumer responsibility, proactivity, and conscious decision-making.
  3. Enable cooperation among relevant stakeholders in building circular value chains
  4. Promote business models and value propositions that embrace circularity
  5. Implement policies globally that recognise digital technologies as the main enabler for circular manufacturing
  6. Promote economic measures that drive the transition to the circular economy and adoption of enabling technologies
  7. Train the workforce for digitally enabled circular manufacturing
  8. Leverage on data to support the circular transition in the manufacturing sector
  9. Empower SMEs in their transition to circular manufacturing
  10. Address the possible negative environmental impact of digital technologies