Title: Improving reverse logistics processes using item-level product life cycle management

Authors: Carl Hans, Karl A. Hribernik, Klaus-Dieter Thoben

Addresses: BIBA – Bremer Institut fur Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Hochschulring 20, Bremen 28359, Germany. ' BIBA – Bremer Institut fur Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Hochschulring 20, Bremen 28359, Germany. ' BIBA – Bremer Institut fur Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Hochschulring 20, Bremen 28359, Germany

Abstract: Sustainability is a key issue for companies offering products and services on the global market. The ever-increasing worldwide demand for raw materials in combination with the rising costs for materials and energy challenges companies to make their products, processes and services more sustainable. More and more customers are demanding sustainable products and services due to their increased awareness about environmental protection. By providing access to data, information and knowledge about products and services the concept of product life cycle management (PLM) can be applied to reverse logistics processes to improve sustainability. The term PLM and, therefore, the functionality of existing PLM systems must be considered as quite different. This paper introduces the concept of item-level PLM. It investigates the requirements that item-level PLM systems must fulfil in order to support sustainability in reverse logistics processes in an appropriate manner. Existing item-level PLM solutions are then investigated according to their suitability in the field of reverse logistics.

Keywords: item-level PLM; product lifecycle management; architecture; integration; sustainability; reverse logistics; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2010.036488

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2010 Vol.4 No.4, pp.338 - 359

Published online: 03 Nov 2010 *

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