Strategy Approach towards Product Lifecycle Management

Mass Customization and global economic collaboration drives the product development and management beyond internal enterprise to cover the whole product value chain. To meet such requirement, a strategy approach focusing on data organization for product lifecycle management was promoted. The approach takes product platform as the base, view engine and rule-based access as data access mechanism, and integration and collaboration bus as a enabler to allow participants involved in product lifecycle to get convenient, WEB-based access to the internal and external content, applications, and services.

A product module mining method for PLM database

Modular technology can effectively support the rapid design of products, and it is one of the key technologies to realize mass customization design. With the application of product lifecycle management(PLM) system in enterprises, the product lifecycle data have been effectively managed. However, these data have not been fully utilized in module division, especially for complex machinery products. To solve this problem, a product module mining method for the PLM database is proposed to improve the effect of module division. Firstly, product data are extracted from the PLM database by data extraction algorithm. Then, data normalization and structure logical inspection are used to preprocess the extracted defective data. The preprocessed product data are analyzed and expressed in a matrix for module mining. Finally, the fuzzy c-means clustering(FCM) algorithm is used to generate product modules, which are stored in product module library after module marking and post-processing. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by a case study of high pressure valve.

Blockchain-based refurbishment certification system for enhancing the circular economy

As the global population continues to grow,the enormous stress on our environment and resources is becoming impossible to ignore.A focus on producing and consuming as cheaply as possible has created an economy in which objects are briefly used and then discarded as waste,featuring a linear lifecycle that creates an enormous amount of waste.The alternative to the linear economy“take-make-waste”is called the“circular economy”.Under this paradigm,materials are recycled to build new products or components that are designed and built to promote their reuse and refurbishment.This assures the continuous(re-)exploitation of existing resources,reducing the extraction of new raw materials.However,customers often reject these reused or refurbished products under the suspicion that they do not meet the same usability,safety,or performance levels of new products.In this sense,trustworthy records of historical details of refurbished products could increase consumers’confidence in products and components of the“circular economy”,prioritizing trustworthiness,reliability,and transparency.This work presents a new certification tool based on blockchain technology to guarantee trusted,accurate,transparent,and traceable lifecycle information of products and their components and to generate trustworthy certificates to probe refurbished product historical details.This tool aims to enhance refurbished product visibility by creating the basis for making the circular economy a reality in any domain.