Circular economy has gained increased attention in both academia and industry. One of the main hurdles in implementing viable circular manufacturing systems in industry is the anticipation of future economic and environmental benefits in a circular supply setting, combined with product design decisions. Although circular practices, such as remanufacturing and reuse are often beneficial for original equipment manufacturers in closing the loop and realising business benefits, it is enormously challenging to match early design decisions at a single component level to future unknown recovery operations. Therefore, this paper presents a mixed agent-based and discrete-event simulation model to quantify economic and environmental impacts resulting from chosen circular design strategies. The feasibility of the model is tested using a case study product of an electric machine from the heavy-duty vehicle industry. Results show that an additional design investment of 10.6% can reduce the average cost of an electric machine by 18.6%, material demand by 14.7% and cradle-to-gate impact by 38.7% on average. In the context of electric machines, the most sensitive parameters of the circular supply chain are the success rate of remanufacturing and reuse operations, the lifetime length and the degradation speed.

Despite the availability of various tools, practitioners often lack a holistic perspective when conducting sustainability-related improvement activities. Existing Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tools that incorporate environmental aspects suffer from a lack of standardization and limited alignment with sustainability reporting standards. This paper introduces a framework for VSM that integrates sustainability indicators to assess and enhance the triple-bottom-line performance of manufacturing processes aligned with the global reporting initiative (GRI) standards. We validate the proposed framework through a case study conducted in a biopharmaceutical production system of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) that employs single-use technologies. The study highlights the critical need for collaboration with equipment suppliers to develop production specifications considering operational performance and environmental impact, thereby capturing a comprehensive perspective. By utilizing the proposed framework, practitioners can identify opportunities for improving the design and efficiency of production systems. The case study provides valuable insights into SMEs’ challenges when transitioning to sustainable production, particularly when product-related requirements impose limitations on sustainability improvements. Although the framework's validation focuses on a biopharmaceutical SME, it can be applied to manufacturing companies across industries to assess and enhance all three aspects of sustainability in their processes.