Advanced Technologies in Life Cycle Engineering.

Increasing competitive pressure within industries producing long-living, cost intensive products drive the need to optimize product life cycles in terms of faster time to market, sustainable operation, reengineering and recycling. In this context, complexity of IT systems is growing and has to connect different life cycle phases. Especially new concepts of Product Service Systems (PSS) lead to a connection between product design, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). There are still many challenges concerning interface problems between different IT-Systems. They are caused by different data formats, continuous demand for information or integration of new technologies. Thus, Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) has gained an important role and needs to consider integration of new industry 4.0 solutions like cloud services, big data or cyber physical systems. This paper gives an overview about these challenges, future development and new research approaches. A deeper view is taken at one promising approach in the field of maintenance of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). This approach is about invention and implementation of a new process that combines both electrical and optical measuring techniques to automate circuit and layout plan reconstruction of long-living and cost intensive electronic boards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]