Digital Product Passport enabled Quality Assessment in Dynamic Circular Supply Chain Networks

Abstract

One of the big challenges in circular economy practice is the management of the forward and reverse supply chain simultaneously. Specifically, the varying quality state of secondary products, components and materials makes it difficult to manage the variety of paths and involved stakeholders towards the reintroduction of secondary materials into their next use phase. B2B marketplaces enable the simple integration of the participating stakeholders along a product’s lifecycle into a common value chain management and enable the formation of dynamic, needs-oriented supply chains. Traceability tools, like the emerging Digital Product Passport (DPP), ensure a continuous information flow among all lifecycle actors. This paper shows how the DPP can be leveraged to facilitate the processes at the end of the product life. Specifically, it presents an approach to integrate Quality Assessment into the reverse supply chain. It proposes to utilize a DPP based on the Asset Administration Shell to establish a common understanding of an object’s quality state between stakeholders. The availability of reliable, standardized quality information has the potential to improve supplier-buyer matchmaking on B2B marketplaces and to increase trust. The concept is demonstrated on a usecase in a dynamic manufacturing environment.