The Circular ERP: System Requirements for Managing Closed-Loop Resource Flows and Product Lifecycles

Abstract

As industries move towards a circular economy, traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems struggle with a significant information gap during the product usage and end of life stages. To address this architectural limitation, this study highlights the essential system requirements for a Circular ERP (C-ERP) platform tailored for closed-loop resource management. Through a structured conceptual review of 30 high-impact studies retrieved from the Scopus database and a subsequent integrative thematic analysis, the research identifies three core capabilities for Circular ERP which are technological tracking, data interoperability, and organizational readiness. Guided by Dynamic Capabilities Theory, this study proposes an Integrated Circular ERP Architecture driven by closed loop feedback mechanism, Digital Product Passports (DPPs), AI-powered decision intelligence and Data Lakehouse infrastructures where ELT pipelines flow exclusively into the centralized platform. Ultimately, this architecture offers a strategic roadmap for shifting legacy transactional systems into unified coordination platforms across decentralized circular ecosystems while supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The main contribution of this study is a theoretically grounded conceptual Circular ERP architecture that integrates fragmented lifecycle data into a unified Lakehouse platform that eliminates data fragmentation across the Beginning-of-Life (BOL), Middle-of-Life (MOL), and End-of-Life (EOL) phases. This framework practically supports manufacturers and policymakers by providing a structured architecture to guide future empirical validation through industrial case studies.