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DOI: https://doi.org/10.63345/ijrhs.net.v10.i9.1
Dr. Sohrab Bharucha
Director Operations
Spica Group
Pune, Maharashtra, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4195-6191
Abstract— The transition from linear manufacturing systems to circular manufacturing ecosystems has become a strategic priority for improving environmental sustainability and long-term business performance. Although existing studies have extensively examined circular economy practices, reverse logistics, and sustainable manufacturing individually, limited attention has been given to developing an integrated quantitative framework that simultaneously evaluates ecosystem collaboration, circular resource efficiency, digital manufacturing readiness, and their collective impact on sustainable competitive advantage. Furthermore, current research often focuses on isolated organizational initiatives rather than the interconnected ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, recyclers, and customers that enables circular value creation. To address these research gaps, this paper proposes a Circular Manufacturing Ecosystem Competitiveness Framework (CMECF) that integrates circular manufacturing indicators into a unified analytical model for assessing sustainable competitive advantage. The framework introduces a composite Circular Manufacturing Ecosystem Index (CMEI) together with Circular Collaboration, Circular Resource Efficiency, and Manufacturing Sustainability Performance scores to quantitatively evaluate organizational maturity. Multiple linear regression and statistical correlation analyses are employed to examine the relationships between circular manufacturing practices and competitive performance. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that organizations with stronger ecosystem collaboration, higher resource recovery, effective reverse logistics, and greater digital manufacturing capabilities achieve superior operational efficiency, sustainability performance, and long-term competitiveness. The proposed framework provides a scalable decision-support model for manufacturing organizations seeking to strengthen circular economy adoption while simultaneously enhancing resilience, innovation capability, and sustainable competitive advantage. The study contributes a comprehensive quantitative methodology that bridges circular economy implementation with strategic manufacturing performance evaluation.
Keywords— Circular manufacturing ecosystem, circular economy, sustainable competitive advantage, resource efficiency, reverse logistics, digital manufacturing, ecosystem collaboration, sustainability, manufacturing analytics, circular business model.
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