Research issues on product lifecycle management and information tracking using smart embedded systems

Abstract

PROMISE will develop appropriate technology, including product lifecycle models, product embedded information devices with associated firmware and software components and tools for decision making based on data gathered through a product lifecycle. This is done to enable and exploit the seamless flow, tracing and updating of information about a product, after its delivery to the customer and up to its final destiny (deregistration, decommissioning) and back to the designer and producer. The breakthrough contribution of PROMISE, in the long term, is to allow information flow management to go beyond the customer, to close the product lifecycle information loops, and to enable the seamless e-transformation of product lifecycle information to knowledge. The PROMISE R&D implementation plan includes fundamental and applied research activities in the disciplines of information systems modelling, smart embedded systems, short and long distance wireless communication technologies, data management and modelling, design for X and adaptive production management for beginning of life (BOL), statistical methods for predictive maintenance for middle of life (MOL) and planning and management of product end of life (EOL). After a general description of the PROMISE project, we present an example of the issues to be addressed in it. It consists of defining a data structure for recording maintainability data during the maintenance operations in order to use them in design for maintainability.