Interactive Visualisation Accelerates Identification of Circular Supply Chain Opportunities

Why It Matters

As supply chains become more complex and sustainability-focused, designers and engineers need tools to navigate vast amounts of data. Interactive visualisation offers a powerful way to make complex recommendations understandable and actionable, leading to more informed decisions about resource use and waste reduction.

Key Finding

The study found that using interactive visualisations in a recommender system made it easier and faster for users to find and understand potential circular supply chain strategies.

Key Findings

• Interactive visualisation enhances user control over recommendations.
• The recommendation process becomes more transparent.
• Interactive visualisation is a viable, fast, and effective approach for exploring CSCM recommendations.

Research Evidence

Aim: How can interactive visualisation techniques facilitate the identification of new sustainable business opportunities within circular supply chain management?

Method: Design Science Methodology and Case Study

Procedure: A recommender system prototype (IS Identification App) was designed and evaluated. This system uses interactive visualisation to support sector-based identification of industrial symbiosis, allowing users to explore and control recommendations.

Context: Supply chain management, industrial symbiosis, sustainable business development

Design Principle

Leverage interactive data visualisation to enhance the exploration and selection of sustainable design solutions within complex systems.

How to Apply

When faced with numerous options for improving supply chain sustainability, use or develop interactive dashboards that allow for dynamic filtering, comparison, and exploration of potential solutions.

Limitations

The study was based on a specific prototype and case study, and generalisability to all CSCM contexts may vary.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: Using cool charts and graphs that you can click on and move around helps people find new ways to make supply chains better for the environment, faster.

Why This Matters: This research shows that making information visual and interactive can help you make better design choices, especially when dealing with complex problems like sustainability in supply chains.

Critical Thinking: To what extent does the effectiveness of interactive visualisation depend on the user's prior knowledge of the subject matter and their familiarity with data visualisation tools?

IA-Ready Paragraph: The research by van Capelleveen et al. (2020) highlights the significant benefits of interactive visualisation in navigating complex decision spaces, such as those found in circular supply chain management. Their findings suggest that such tools can accelerate the identification of sustainable business opportunities by enhancing transparency and user control over recommendations, indicating a strong potential for integrating similar visualisation approaches into design projects focused on resource efficiency and sustainability.

Project Tips

• When researching sustainable materials or processes, consider how you can visually represent the trade-offs and benefits.
• If your project involves complex data, explore tools that allow for interactive data exploration rather than static reports.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the importance of data visualisation in supporting design decisions for complex systems, particularly in sustainability-focused projects.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how data visualisation can be a powerful tool for analysis and decision-making in design, not just for presentation.

Independent Variable: Interactive visualisation techniques

Dependent Variable: Identification of CSCM opportunities, speed and effectiveness of exploration

Controlled Variables: Type of recommender system, user's task, data presented

Strengths

• Employs a structured design science methodology.
• Evaluates the system through a case study, providing practical context.

Critical Questions

• How can the insights from this study be applied to other complex design challenges beyond supply chain management?
• What are the potential drawbacks or cognitive loads associated with highly interactive visualisations?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could explore the development and evaluation of an interactive visualisation tool to support decision-making in a specific area of sustainable design, drawing parallels with the CSCM context.

Source

Exploring recommendations for circular supply chain management through interactive visualisation · Decision Support Systems · 2020 · 10.1016/j.dss.2020.113431