Title: Towards (pro-)active intelligent products

Authors: Thorsten Wuest; Tim Schmidt; Wei Wei; David Romero

Addresses: Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA ' Faculty of Production Engineering, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany ' Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Systems Research Center, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing, China ' Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico

Abstract: Intelligent product research and applications are progressing rapidly. This development driven by the advances of ICT technology, product lifecycle focus, product-service systems (PSS), cloud computing, social network services, in short, the abundance of communication means and (user) data. Despite this rapid development, intelligent products are still rather passive in nature. In this study, we aim to investigate the future direction of intelligent products. The central research question is whether intelligent products are becoming more (pro-)active and/or socially active with subsequent questions regarding associated requirements and demands, barriers and challenges and information needs. To answer these questions, we conducted guided expert interviews and qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that the direction of intelligent products is moving towards a more (pro-)active future. We discuss how this new development is contributing to smart manufacturing as well as PSS design and operation and suggest an extension of two classification models for intelligent products.

Keywords: intelligent products; smart products; product service systems; PSS; product lifecycle management; PLM; embedded intelligence; intelligent systems; internet of things; IoT; smart manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2018.092829

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2018 Vol.11 No.2, pp.154 - 189

Received: 22 Mar 2017
Accepted: 13 Feb 2018
Published online: 30 Jun 2018 *

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