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Erik Sundin

Professor

Erik is an ambassador, keynote speaker, lecturer in the area of Sustainable Manufacturing with focus on Remanufacturing. He conducts research on manufacturing/remanufacturing towards a sustainable future.

Sustainable manufacturing with focus on circular economy and remanufacturing

Erik has long experience of research on circular economy and remanufacturing. He wrote his PhD thesis in 2004 entitled Product and Process Design for Successful Remanufacturing. His dissertation is popular (downloaded more than 24 000 times) since it is not many dissertations written about remanufacturing. Most of Erik’s research has been focusing on remanufacturing but lately the subject of sustainable manufacturing and product service systems has also been researched. Within Product Service Systems (PSS) / Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) Erik is one of the top 5 most cited authors.

The research projects that Erik has been involved in have 7 times been apart of the the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) annual 100 List. This IVA-100-list highlights current research with the potential to create value through commercialization, business and method development or societal impact.

Brief facts

Awards

  • Emerald Literati Network 2010 Awards for Excellence for the article “Product design for product/service systems – design experiences from Swedish industry,” published in the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.
  • Best Paper Award for the article “Exploring the Use of Product Life-Cycle Information in Two Value Chains Including Remanufacturing” at EcoDesign-13, Jeju, South Korea.
  • Best Paper Award for the article “Reverse logistic challenges within the remanufacturing of automotive components” at ICOR-2011, Glasgow, Scotland.

    • Assignments

    • Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Remanufacturing (Springer).
    • Member of the international research network called "The International PSS Design Research Community," comprising researchers from Japan, Germany, Denmark, France, and Sweden.
    • Expert group leader within VINNOVA's strategic innovation program "Produktion2030."
    • Academic network contact for the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN).
    • Participated and contributed in the development of circular product standards e.g. ISO14006, ISO59004 and the EN4555X-serie.

    Online presence

    Google Scholar
    Research Gate
    ResearcherID: P-6245-2014
    Scopus Author ID: 55886922500
    ORCID: 0000-0003-2552-3636

    Social media

    CV

    Research

    International collaborations

    Erik has been working within several international research projects where he has participated in six European Union projects that focuses on improving the preconditions and competitiveness for remanufacturing companies. He has also arranged International Conferences on Remanufacturing (ICoR) and Industrial Product Service Systems (IPS2).

    International projects

    National research collaborations

    Nationally Erik is leading and participating in several research projects on circular economy and remanufacturing. Much focus has lately been on how to best use life cycle information about products to facilitate remanufacturing and design-for-remanufacturing. He is also leading a project on sustainable manufacturing were an industrial cleaning and drying machine is developed using nothing but very clean water.

    National projects

    • REMARKABLE – Remanufacturing - key enabler to future business
    • ARR – Automation in Repair and Remanufacturing (IVA-100)
    • SQID – Sustainable and Qlean Industry Demonstrator
    • Mistra REES - Resource-Efficient and Effective Solutions based on circular economy thinking (IVA-100)
    • RemProLife - Efficient Remanufacture through Use of Lean principles and Product Life-cycle data
    • KEAP - Design for Remanufacture through Efficient Use of Product Life-cycle data

    More information about the research can be found below and in his CV above.

    Research projects

    Many forklifts.

    Remanufacturing – key enabler to future business

    The overall purpose for the project is to support manufacturers to become more resilient, circular and sustainable through remanufacturing and contribute to a more efficient use of resources.
    Industrial washingmachine.

    Sustainable Manufacturing

    Researchers at Linköping University together with industrial partners are studying industrial process for manufacturing to make them more sustainable.
    Fujitsu factory taking apart computers in Japan.

    Design for manufacturing and remanufacturing

    Our research aims to develop methods for manufacturing companies and how they should design their products for manufacturing and remanufacturing.

    Publications

    2024

    Ramesh Subramoniam, Donald Huisingh, Erik Sundin, Ratna Babu Chinnam, Bogachan Bayulken, Jighyasu Gaur, Kannan Govindan, Claudia Viegas (2024) Special issue editorial: Supply chain planning & management challenges and opportunities driven by climate change and other disruptions and how to accelerate societal transition to equitable, sustainable and livable societies Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 481, Article 144129 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
    Bob Nanthakorn, Erik Sundin, Mattias Lindahl, Ruth Banomyong (2024) Challenges and Opportunities Regarding Circular Strategies for Electric Vehicle Components in Thailand Journal of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, Vol. 19, p. 83-100 (Article in journal)
    Paulina Golinska-Dawson, Tomohiko Sakao, Erik Sundin, Karolina Werner-Lewandowska (2024) How can OEMs scale up remanufacturing in product-as-a-service (PaaS)? - challenges and enablers from a theoretical and industrial perspective International Journal of Production Research (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
    Jelena Kurilova, Johannes Matschewsky, Erik Sundin (2024) Four Levels of Remanufacturing Maturity as a Circular Manufacturing Indicator: A Theoretical Framework and Practical Assessment Tool Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol. 211, Article 107899 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
    Johan Vogt Duberg, Erik Sundin, Jelena Kurilova-Palisaitiene (2024) Exploring the incentives for initiating remanufacturing: experiences from eight European original equipment manufacturers Procedia CIRP, Vol. 122, p. 437-442 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

    News

    Two female student, dissasembling an Ikea product.

    Students disassemble Ikea products

    This is part of a research project in which LiU students get to collaborate with the Swedish furniture giant. The students document possibility of repairing, replacing and reusing.
    Autumn at the Campus Valla and bikes.

    Research at IEI holds a high standard

    Stanford University has recently released an updated list of the top two percent most cited researchers globally, and it is gratifying to note that once again, several distinguished researchers from IEI are represented on the list.
    It is a award, three men is on an stage.

    Erik Sundin won Best Reman Ambassador at REMATEC

    The jury at Roty Awards in Amsterdam think that Erik Sundin demonstrate passion and commitment for the reman industry.

    Organisation

    Image with words as services, products, innovation

    Products Services and Innovation

    The unit is a research group that are leading experts in applied and transdisciplinary research on sustainable value creation based on a system perspective that enables effective and efficient use and preservation of resources.
    Environmental Technology and Management

    Environmental Technology and Management (MILJÖ)

    Division of Environmental Technology and Management is a research and education environment at the Department of Management and Engineering. We turn environmental problems into opportunities.
    Campus Valla overview.

    Department of Management and Engineering (IEI)

    The Department of Management and Engineering (IEI) strengthens and develops tomorrow’s industry, business world and society by ground-breaking research, education and innovation.

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