A simulation system to support the establishment of circulated business

In a traditional business, although products are supplied to consumers, essentially services or functions are supplied. The supply of services or functions to consumers does not necessarily involve the sale of a product. In such a situation, it is possible to reduce environmental loads by reusing a product without the consumer owning a product. In this study, we developed a life cycle simulation system for establishing a business in which a product is reused. By using this simulation system, environmental and economic evaluation based on material flow and cash flow can be executed. In this paper, a reuse business is defined as a business model in which products are collected and reused, and a sales business is defined as a current business model in which products are sold and not recovered. For supporting an actual business, an evaluation model of mixed business in a transition state from a sales business to a reuse business in which reused products are launched into different market segments is implemented. The usefulness of the developed system is shown by the application example of reusing personal computers.