Traceability

Traceability systems are used in large companies to trace and track products. Although these systems aid to avoid quality and cost risks, they are only used hesitantly in SMEs. This is partly due to a lack of market transparency. Consequently, a methodology is needed that enables SMEs to capture their requirements using reference products and processes and to map them to available software solutions. This paper deals with a methodology that simplifies the selection process and focuses on the approach regarding the creating reference products and processes.

Existing PLM solutions provide mature methods and functionalities for the management of processes and data of virtual products in the early product lifecycle phases. Appropriate solutions for managing information of individual real physical products within the production, use and end-of-life phases are not available. In this article an approach for a product-individual information management is presented, which is based on a product traceability solution.