In today’s linear economy, global economic progress is linked to environmental degradation causing increased scarcity of resources, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. The circular economy empowers sustainable economic progress through efficient use of resources in the form of closed material cycles. One of the challenges of circular economy for production is the uncertain return time and quantity and uncontrollable quality conditions of returning end-of-life products. Flexible production structures with their ability to adapt to uncertainty are an enabler for the circular economy. This paper conducts a systematic literature review on flexible production structures in the circular economy to analyse the state of the art regarding alternative production structures. The structures and methods utilized in the literature are classified in a matrix. The identified structures are cellular, disassembly line, job-shop and holonic structure. The methods used are mathematical optimization, simulation and qualitative analysis.