Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB A major challenge of our time is the need to decouple economic growth from the consumption of resources, including energy and materials, which can only be achieved through the increasingly efficient use of natural resources in companies.
The circular economy model is essential for this. It encompasses the accessibility and management of product information throughout their entire life cycle, which enables, among other things, the reprocessing, dismantling and reuse or recycling of products and/or their components. For example, the material composition of a car battery is essential for its disassembly and its operating data for assessing its reusability.
Fraunhofer IOSB supports the information management essential for this with solutions for digital product passports and their digital infrastructure based on the Industrie 4.0 Asset Administration Shell (AAS) and their implementation using the open source software FA³ST. This enables companies to use, maintain and share standardized and interoperable product information views adapted to the respective purpose.