Framework de economia circular 4.0 para o setor atacado distribuidor: perspectivas a partir da regionalidade

Abstract

The current productive scenario has presented relevant changes. The development of a Circular Economy (CE), makes possible the assimilation of a sustainable economic development model and allows us to develop cleaner and more sustainable production and distribution systems. Another of these changes concerns the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, which brings to organizations new forms of digitalization of their production processes. These technologies contribute to production and energy efficiency, greater information sharing and integration among stakeholders in a supply chain. In order to achieve the CE, technological modernization is necessary for the different sectors. Thus, Industry 4.0 is a determining factor for the maturity, in fact, of the CE, allowing companies to incorporate modern resources of technology and data for the formation of Circular Supply Chains. Some sectors are important players in the development of the CE. This is the case of the Wholesale Distributor Sector which has a prominent role in the city of Uberlândia - MG, which allows the analysis of the relationship between these stakeholders’ trough the regional perspective. There are many studies about the CE and Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing sector, but little is known about how the other members of the supply chain have reacted. Thus, the following research question arises: How is it possible to structure the Circular Economy within the context of digitalization in the Wholesale and Distribution Sector? Thus, the objective of this work is to identify the relationship between the concepts of Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy in wholesale distributors and to propose and validate a 4.0 distribution framework. To achieve the results, a systematic literature review was conducted to structure the framework, as well as semi-structured interviews with representatives of companies in the city of Uberlândia - MG, which integrate the wholesale distributors' supply chain to validate the framework. Later, Soft System Methodology (SSM) was applied to assess the sector’s ability to enable integration with other supply chain members to form a Circular Supply Chain. As a result of this work, a circular distribution framework was proposed for distribution 4.0. The application of Soft System Methodology (SSM) allowed a systemic analysis of the sector and the relationships that the stakeholders must maintain to structure a Circular Supply Chain, which contributed to the improvement of the proposed framework.