Product-mediated communication through digital object memories in heterogeneous value chains

Industrial production and supply chains face an increased demand for mass-customization and tightening regulations for the traceability of goods, leading to higher requirements concerning flexibility, adaptability and transparency of processes. Technologies for the “Internet of Things” such as smart products and semantic representations pave their way into future factories and supply chains to fulfill these challenging market demands. In this paper a backend-independent approach for information exchange in open-loop processes based on so-called digital object memories (DOM) is presented. By storing order-related data via smart labels on the item, relevant life cycle information is attached to the product itself. This way, information handover via several stages of the value chain with potentially different stakeholders including manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and end customer has been realized. To summarize first best-practice experiences regarding memory structure and content, a prototype implementation based on a scenario of processing dietary supplements in an adaptive process is illustrated.