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International audience; Intelligent products are an undeniable asset for efficient product lifecycle management (PLM), providing ways to capture events related to physical objects at various locations and times. Today and more than ever before, PLM tools and systems must be built upon standards for enhancing interoperability among all product stakeholders and developing tools independent of specific vendors, applications, and operating systems. Based on this observation, this paper develops strategies to improve “information sustainability” in PLM environments using standardized communication interfaces defined by a recent standard proposal named quantum lifecycle management (QLM) messaging standards. More concretely, data synchronization models based upon QLM standards are developed to enable the synchronization of product-related information among various systems, networks, and organizations involved throughout the product lifecycle. Our proposals are implemented and assessed based on two distinct platforms defined in the healthcare and home automation sectors.

Item-centric tracking is an opportunity to increase visibility and control in different operations of a company. The economical feasibility of item-centric tracking is based on recent technological developments for monitoring the material flow on the item-level instead of the material type-level. It enables companies to track and trace assets over their lifecycle and manage supply chain operations across organizational boundaries. However, the challenge in practice is to find the right areas to start the development of business applications. In this viewpoint paper a means-ends framework for introducing item-centric tracking in business is proposed based on realized track and trace cases. Based on the framework a roadmap for introducing tracking in businesses operations is outlined. The proposed roadmap circumvents the most challenging business cases for introducing tracking and RFID-technology in the supply chain and focuses on asset management as a more accessible route for business. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The management of single-item level information has grown to be one of the greatest challenges of supply network management. The main reasons for this are the increasing product customisation and increasingly complex supply networks. Product customisation adds to the quantity and specificity of product-related information. Current mainstream solutions, based on integrating product information databases, are not suitable for complex, short-term supply networks. This paper presents an approach and a proposed system for managing single-item level information. The approach we call product centric information management is based on centralising information to the individual products. The proposed system uses software agents, peer-to-peer information sharing, and a coding mechanism that utilises the domain names of the Internet. We also review applications of the system in tracking and logistics control.

International projects present really difficult logistics challenges. In international investment projects, a vast number of individualised deliveries has to be managed through a large supply network in a tight timeframe. This article investigates how the logistic challenges of international projects can be solved by utilising advanced web technologies and product identification. The paper presents a control system being built at Helsinki University of Technology, which is based on distributed programming, and wireless identification technologies. The aim of the system is to change the controlling mechanisms of project deliveries by giving the deliveries themselves the means with which to control their route. This enables the material flows in the project delivery chains to be controlled from the inside of the material flow itself.