Think about this: A brand-new automobile design is nearing completion. The staff is holding its breath, brimming with anticipation to unveil the creation to management. Out of the blue, a immediate from the Product Lifecycle Administration (PLM) system pops up – a circularity compliance examine has flagged gaps. The celebration halts, and the design is pushed again into revision.
This won’t have been a typical state of affairs prior to now, however not anymore.
PLM has advanced. It’s now not a siloed, engineering-centric device, nor are groups confined to working in remoted digital environments. At this time, PLM methods are collaborative, clever, and deeply built-in throughout capabilities – from design and sourcing to sustainability and compliance.
And within the automotive sector, which is among the many largest customers of uncooked supplies and likewise a big contributor to waste, the function of PLM has by no means been extra essential. The {industry} is now anticipated to not simply reply to sustainability targets however to guide them. Circularity has grow to be a foundational precept, shaping choices proper from the idea stage, embedded inside each course of, and ensured at each lifecycle checkpoint.
“Our goal needs to be zero waste to landfill,” asserts Rajendra Petkar, President and CTO, Tata Motors, talking on the ETAutoTech Summit 2025 held lately in Bengaluru. He emphasised that “round financial system is now not a definite aim however an pressing necessity,” underlining automotive {industry}’s rising duty in main the shift in direction of sustainable practices.
India’s round alternative
India is rising as a worldwide automotive large with over 30 crore automobiles working on India roads, estimated 28 million automobiles coming yearly. “The {industry} has attracted overseas direct funding (FDI) of over $36 billion between 2000 and 2024 with main international gamers both increasing their footprint in India or have a big plan,” shares Petkar, including that it’s the time to take a powerful name of execution of the circularity ambition into motion.
Petkar sees this as an inflection level, “It’s time to execute the circularity ambition. India is already the most important producer of two- and three-wheelers and a significant participant in tractors and industrial automobiles. Engineering and innovation should now translate nationwide mandates on scrappage and waste administration into motion.”
Indicating that the regime for scrappage of automobiles continues to be evolving and at a nascent stage in India, Petkar emphasises that engineering circularity should start with design and materials choice. On the finish of a automobile’s life (ELV), the recyclability of its parts depends upon whether or not authentic materials properties and half relationships have been preserved.
“Leveraging modular product design, reuse-friendly parts, straightforward dismantling, and sorting at ELV stations, selecting renewable over the pure supplies, and avoiding use of poisonous supplies, and dangerous supplies like lead and asbestos are key enablers,” he explains.
“We have to construct a holistic method that’s broad-based throughout areas of applied sciences for waste administration, upstream materials choice and product growth processes. These needs to be engagement equations of stakeholders for worthwhile enterprise progress. Organisations have to have a design handbook or a PLM sort of IT system that may truly immediate the designers to examine whether or not ideas of circularity have been deployed as a part of a brand new design.”
Constructing clever round methods
Prof. Deepu Philip, Professor at Division of Administration Sciences (DoMS), IIT Kanpur, reinforces the significance of clever PLM methods. “By embedding circularity into PLM methods, the automotive sector can considerably scale back materials waste, enhance provide chain resilience, construct clever merchandise, decrease concept-to-market time, and meet more and more stringent environmental laws. This management can even encourage different industries like semiconductors, prescribed drugs, industrial items, and so forth., to observe, making PLM a key enabler of world sustainability targets.”
Historically, PLM managed a product from idea by means of design, manufacturing, and end-of-life. Nevertheless, in a round financial system, PLM should additionally assist materials traceability, accountable sourcing, and the reuse, recycling, and restoration of supplies throughout a number of product lifecycles.
“At this time, authentic gear producers (OEMs) are more and more approaching product growth with recyclability and reusability in thoughts from the early idea section now not as an afterthought. This shift is pushed by sustainability targets, regulatory necessities, and rising client consciousness,” says Vivek Salvi, Senior Gross sales Director, Buyer Course of Expertise, Dassault Systèmes India.
Provides, Kunal Kulkarni, Vertical Follow Director – Digital, Tata Applied sciences, “PLM has developed from serving as a ‘single supply of fact’ to supporting the creation of round and environmentally acutely aware merchandise. As buyer preferences shift in direction of merchandise with decreased environmental affect, automotive OEMs are investing in applied sciences that facilitate recycling and reuse of parts, which might reduce the demand for fully new elements inside the provide chain.”
Salvi highlights the worth of digital twins – real-time digital representations of merchandise that enhances cross-functional collaboration, permits groups to simulate and analyse the product’s efficiency, materials circulation, and environmental affect earlier than bodily manufacturing begins. “This not solely reduces waste and price but additionally helps smarter choices associated to design for sturdiness, repairability, and end-of-life restoration.”
The regulatory pulse
World wide, regulatory and coverage frameworks are evolving to drive circularity practices. From the EU’s ELV Directive to state-level mandates and the strengthening of Prolonged Producer Duty (EPR) guidelines, governments are sending robust alerts. India has responded with the Nationwide Automobile Scrappage Coverage, EPR mandates throughout six materials classes, and Automotive Business Normal (AIS) 129, which supplies steering for the protected dismantling and recycling of ELVs with a concentrate on environmental safety.
Nevertheless, execution stays uneven. The ecosystem for ELV recycling continues to be nascent in India. There may be restricted consciousness, an absence of well-distributed scrapping infrastructure, and inconsistent enforcement. The result’s unregulated scrapping, low recycling effectivity, and large untapped potential in recovering priceless supplies. “Growing automobile recycling fee, funding in organised scrapping services and execution of assorted coverage initiatives is paramount,” says Petkar.
A Round Renaissance
“Over the subsequent decade, linear fashions will give approach to round improvements,” says Gilroy Mathew, Senior Vice President & World Head – Engineering Providers, UST. “Automobiles will re-enter the worth chain—tracked, optimised, and reborn. This isn’t simply evolution. It’s a renaissance in how we design, produce, and recirculate mobility.”
At this time, trendy automobiles are a mixture of composites, polymers, metals and fluids which might be chosen as per their efficiency and performance based mostly on power, weight, price and security. “Whereas many supplies are recyclable, others pose challenges that requires industry-academia and innovation labs collaboration to enhance recoverability and recyclability throughout numerous materials varieties,” says Petkar.
Petkar outlines 4 ranges of circularity – L1, L2, L3, and L4. Whereas L1 is about extending the helpful lifetime of merchandise by means of reuse, restore, and upkeep, and it encourages designing merchandise for sturdiness, modularity and simple restore; L2 is about repurposing and remanufacturing whereby repurposing means utilizing a product or materials for a special perform, or software, than initially supposed, and remanufacturing is a strategy of restoring used merchandise or parts to present them a brand new life sort of a situation.
L3 is of recycle and get well that highlights closing of fabric loops recycling waste into the uncooked supplies. It goals to rework waste streams into priceless inputs for brand spanking new manufacturing cycle, decreasing landfill, and useful resource depletion. L4 is highest within the framework geared toward minimising useful resource consumption and waste technology from its outset. “That is about doing extra with much less, nevertheless it shouldn’t change the leaner nature of manufacturing and consumption,” he exclaims.
The Way forward for PLM
Automotive OEMs are creating technical options by integrating a number of methods and refining new product introduction (NPI) high quality processes to evaluate environmental impacts and work in direction of sustainability goals. These efforts goal to assist automotive corporations retain competitiveness and ship merchandise aligned with future sustainability expectations.
“Key parameters in PLM purposes that assist sustainability embrace integration of fabric requirements inside product design software program, enabling designers to pick out different supplies that align with carbon discount targets whereas assembly price necessities, connecting digital manufacturing processes to allow “what-if” analyses and perform cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessments, and ongoing enchancment in design by integrating information from mechanical, electronics, software program, and simulation sources with circularity goals,” says Kulkarni.
“The way forward for PLM lies in turning into an enterprise-wide, clever information platform that not solely accelerates innovation however embeds sustainability into each product resolution. The automotive {industry}, with its scale and international affect, is poised to guide the circularity motion by leveraging PLM to handle supplies, processes, and companions with sustainability and reuse on the core” exclaims Salvi.
