Five modules.
One circular system.
The DfACE methodology is based on five building blocks that can be used both independently and as an integrated system. Each building block addresses a specific phase of the transition to a circular economy—from product assessment to economic integration. All building blocks are based on scientifically sound findings and are tailored to your industry and your company.
Circular Engineering Literacy
Circular Engineering Literacy provides the technical basis for decision-making in real-world circularity. The focus is on design, material, and joining technology decisions, as well as their impact on disassembly, recycling, and economic recovery within real-world industrial processes. In this way, the circular economy evolves from a theoretical vision into a well-founded engineering and decision-making discipline within product development.
Identify critical design decisions early
Classifying products along real-world cycle paths
Creating a shared understanding between departments
Avoid late technical and economic mistakes
Engineering instead of theoretical circular economy models
This module fosters a shared engineering understanding of how products must be evaluated throughout their entire life cycle. Instead of theoretical circular economy models, the focus is on real-world end-of-life conditions, dismantling processes, and existing recycling technologies. Participants learn to identify critical design decisions early on and systematically assess their technical and economic impacts.
DfACE views circularity not as an abstract sustainability goal, but as a concrete technical and economic challenge. The focus is on real-world industrial conditions, existing process limitations, and the impact of product decisions on subsequent dismantling, separation, and recovery processes.
Linking product design, joining technology and circularity
At its core, DfACE links product design, joining technology, and circularity. It analyzes how material combinations, connections, and product architectures influence subsequent reuse, repairability, and material recovery. This creates a common evaluation language that aligns development, production, and sustainability with a realistic circular engineering logic.
The goal is to identify misconceptions about recyclability early on and to make technical decisions along existing circular pathways. The module lays the foundation for different disciplines to understand, prioritize, and evaluate the same circular challenges.
Analysis
Classification
Evaluation
USP of DfACE Module 1:
Circular economy is treated as a technical decision problem – not as a communication or strategy exercise.
What Module 1 is not:
DfACE does not provide foundational knowledge of the circular economy. We create an engineering-based understanding of how product decisions influence real-world dismantling, recycling, and recovery processes.
Engineering-based Circular Assessment
Engineering-based Circular Assessment analyzes products along real-world dismantling, recycling, and recovery processes. The goal is to reveal which design decisions technically enable circularity—and which systematically prevent it.
Making circularly critical assemblies visible
Classifying design decisions from a technical and economic perspective
Identify specific redesign levers
Assess real rather than theoretical recyclability
Analysis of real product structures
The module disassembles products into components, assemblies, joining points, and material combinations, and evaluates their behavior along real-world end-of-life pathways. The focus is on disassembly, accessibility, automation potential, and the technical and economic viability of recovery processes.
DfACE analyzes not only individual materials or components, but the entire product logic within the context of existing disassembly and recycling processes. Among other things, it assesses sequencing, non-destructive separation, process times, and the impact of joining techniques and material combinations on subsequent recovery. This creates a robust technical foundation for identifying circular potential and systemic barriers within a product.
Reliably evaluate design decisions
DfACE connects product design with real-world recycling and dismantling processes. This generates concrete decision-making criteria, prioritized redesign recommendations, and transparency regarding technical barriers, economic tipping points, and circularly critical assemblies.
The goal is to make design decisions evaluable not based on theoretical recyclability, but under real-world industrial conditions. The module identifies which product structures enable high-quality recovery, where economic limits are reached, and which changes generate the greatest circular impact. This results in technically sound decision-making for future product generations, production adjustments, and strategic circular engineering measures.
Disassembly
Comparison
Prioritization
USP of DfACE Module 2
This module addresses joining technology as a crucial system lever. The analysis is based on existing processes, not on future promises.
What Module 2 is not:
DfACE does not assess the theoretical recyclability of a product. We analyze whether recovery is technically and economically viable under real industrial conditions.
Circular Readiness of Production Systems
Circular Readiness of Production Systems assesses whether existing production and organizational structures can realistically support circular product concepts. The focus is on scalability, process logic, and the avoidance of internal conflicts of objectives.
Making circular design industrially feasible
Identifying organizational and technical bottlenecks
Strategically linking production and circularity
Avoid internal goal conflicts early on
Production as a circular overall system
The module analyzes the interactions between product structure, joining technology, cycle times, variant management, and organizational decision-making logics. It examines whether existing production systems support or systematically hinder disassembly, repairability, and future recovery processes.
DfACE does not view production in isolation as a mere output structure, but rather as an integral component of a product's future circularity. The evaluation includes manufacturing logics, process interfaces, data flows, and existing quality and release mechanisms. The goal is to reveal where internal structures enable—or unintentionally prevent—circular design.
Making circular design operationally feasible
DfACE identifies technical and organizational bottlenecks that limit circular product strategies. The goal is to develop realistic adaptation scenarios, identify conflicting objectives early on, and implement circular product concepts on an industrial scale. The central question is how circular design can be integrated into existing production and decision-making structures without creating new inefficiencies or operational instability.
The module provides transparency regarding which adjustments are feasible in the short term, where organizational changes are necessary, and which processes need to be further developed in the long term to implement circular products economically and reproducibly.
Evaluation
Comparison
Adjustment
USP of DfACE Module 3
This module prevents circular design concepts from failing at internal system boundaries.
What Module 3 is not:
DfACE does not primarily optimize the output of a production process. We assess whether production and decision-making structures enable circular product concepts in the long term.
Circular Ecosystem Integration
Circular Ecosystem Integration verifies whether circularly developed products actually function outside the company. The focus is on real-world dismantling, recycling, and return systems, as well as their technical, economic, and organizational requirements.
Technically ensuring real circularity
Making products compatible with existing systems
Identifying external process and value losses
Reduce market and regulatory risks early on
Products as part of real value creation and recycling networks
This module considers products not in isolation, but as part of a complex ecosystem comprising recycling companies, dismantling processes, logistics structures, regulatory requirements, and market mechanisms. The goal is to assess a product's technical compatibility with real-world stakeholders and processes.
DfACE analyzes how product architectures, material combinations, and joining techniques interact with existing recycling facilities, material flow logics, and take-back systems. Particular attention is paid to product structures suitable for automation, AI-supported dismantling processes, and robotic recycling approaches.
Making circularity functional outside the company
The circular economy often fails not because of the product itself, but because of interfaces between companies, recycling processes, and market logics. This module identifies precisely these external barriers and shows where value is lost, processes break down, or technical potential remains untapped.
DfACE therefore validates circularity where products are actually disassembled, sorted, evaluated, and returned. The result is reality-tested recommendations for product design, business models, and process integration—based on existing technologies rather than theoretical assumptions about the future.
Comparison
Analysis
Validation
USP of DfACE Module 4
Circularity is validated where products are actually disassembled, sorted, and priced.
What Module 4 is not:
DfACE does not evaluate theoretical cycles. We examine whether products actually function with real-world recycling, take-back, and value creation systems.
Circular Technology Enablement
Circular Technology Enablement translates circular strategies into concrete technical solutions. The goal is not only to evaluate products, components, and materials, but also to actively recover, separate, and reintegrate them into new value creation processes.
Targeted recovery of materials and components
Developing AI and robotics-enabled processes
Reducing external recycling dependencies
Expanding circular technologies on an industrial scale
Technology as an extension of circular engineering
This module develops technical solution architectures based on previously validated product, production, and ecosystem analyses. The focus is on product-specific disassembly and separation concepts, automated recovery processes, and the targeted reuse of functional components and materials.
DfACE views products not as the end point of a life cycle, but as future resources. Design decisions serve as the basis for technological processes such as robotic disassembly, AI-supported identification, and adaptive separation systems. The technologies are not developed generically, but are precisely tailored to product structure, material logic, and real-world recycling conditions.
Generating real added value from circularity
The circular economy only fully realizes its economic potential when companies can technologically control key recovery and dismantling processes themselves. This module lays the foundation for building internal circular technologies and systematically leveraging new value creation potential.
DfACE develops technical roadmaps, dismantling concepts, and automation strategies tailored to real-world industrial requirements. The goal is to efficiently recover high-quality materials and components, reduce external dependencies, and establish scalable circular operations—from manual processes to AI- and robotics-based systems.
Concept
Integration
Implementation
USP of DfACE Module 5
Technology arises from the product and its recovery requirements – not from generic recycling solutions.
What Module 5 is not:
DfACE does not develop technology independently of the product. Our solutions arise from specific product, material, and process requirements, making circularity operationally usable.
Turn your products into strategic assets
Circular economy strategies create measurable value across all areas of the business. Select an area to discover the specific benefits of DfACE at your level.
