Closing the information loops across all phases of all kinds of lifecycles

The concept of “Closed Loop Lifecycle Management” (CL2M) owes its inception to the work and results of the EU PROMISE Project and is the first in a series of short articles providing a foundation for understanding not only the important elements of CL2M, but also its considerable future impact on the effective exploitation of all kinds of lifecycle information.
At its commencement in November 2004, the scope of the EU PROMISE Project was quite clearly focused on closed-loop Product Lifecycle Management, and it had the following contractual objectives:

1. To develop new closed-loop life cycle information flow     models for BOL, MOL and EOL

 

"In order to close the information flow for the entire product life cycle, product and process models will be developed for the BOL, MOL and EOL phases. These models will be integrated into the product life cycle models and will be the foundations of new software modules able to support decision making in various product development related fields such as Product Diagnostics, Preventive Maintenance, End-of-Life, Adaptive Production, Design for X (DfX), where X stands for Use, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Service, Logistics, EOL, etc. These modules will be managed through their integration in a web-based Product Lifecycle Management system (PLM)."

2. To develop new PLM system and IT infrastructure exploiting the capabilities of smart product embedded information devices

 

"A new PLM system will make appropriate product information available through a local wireless connection to product embedded information devices and through remote Internet connection to distributed Knowledge Repositories."

3. To develop new standards to allow the technologies and associated tools developed by the PROMISE project to be accepted by the market and allow it to expand quickly by creating an appropriate environment for the development of new innovative applications

 

"Appropriate standardisation activities will be initiated in order to generate new standards at the required levels (RFID, sensors, intra-product data interfaces, system) to allow the management and control of the proposed new PLM functions and operations to be developed."

 4. To develop new working and business models appropriate for the use and exploitation of the new technologies and tools to be developed by all actors involved in a product lifecycle

 

"PROMISE will explore human and social issues towards the development of a sustainable business model, able to serve the deployment of new innovative ways of work that will influence existing businesses or create new ones, after the acceptance of the PROMISE technology by the concerned stakeholders at a global level."

In striving to meet these objectives, the project consortium partners made many fascinating discoveries which led us most significantly to identify CL2M as a concept, but also to recognise some quite unexpected impacts with regard to the technology advances and emerging concepts like the Internet of Things. I propose to introduce these gradually over the future articles in this series. 
The parallel series in this newsletter by Scott Cleveland on the topic of Business Process Management is also very significant, since the successful realisation of CL2M will be impossible without the proper level of recognition and effort being given to its impact on business processes.

CL2M has a particular significance for the future of PLM, but it also has ramifications for all kinds of lifecycles inherent in supply chains, pedigree and traceability of food, beverage, pharmaceuticals, high-value retail, and health care applications; and when you look closely you can see a whole spectrum of interdependencies in the information needs of these different disciplines. CL2M is a very exciting and long-term opportunity. I welcome and encourage feedback or questions from anyone reading this article on my blog. 

 

David Potter is Chief Technical Officer, Promise Innovation International Oy., and former Chairman of the Project Steering Board of the EU PROMISE Project.