18th International Conference on Production Research DESIGN PATTERNS FOR MANAGING PRODUCT LIFECYCLE INFORMATION

The increasing technical sophistication of manufactured products is a challenge for managing their design, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal, i.e. the product's lifecycle. Availability of timely and accurate product information is becomi ng a necessity during the entire lifecycle. At the same time enterprises become increasingly global and networked (the "virtual enterprise"), which makes it even more difficult to handle product information. A supplementary challenge comes from customized products where every product item has its item-specific information. When considering the entire lifecycle, practically all products are customized products due to different conditions of use, maintenance, spare parts etc