The Role of Productization in End-To-End Traceability

Abstract

End-to-end traceability offers significant opportunities for product lifecycle visibility, sustainability enhancement, and regulatory compliance in product management. However, it faces challenges in data integration and management, supplier collaboration, cost and complexity, and the sharing of information across the supply chain. Productization refers to the representation of a product and connects commercial and technical aspects to the systemic perspective of product management. This includes a focus on the engineering lifecycle with inherent linkages to product data. The product management perspective, specifically in relation to the connection between end-to-end traceability and the productization concept, has not been extensively studied. This study explores the role of both productization and traceability in the context of end-to-end traceability. It combines an extensive literature review and an empirical example of applying productization logic across company borders to support end-to-end traceability. The key findings indicate that productization logic with a product structure focus can support end-to-end traceability in product management by providing consistency and a foundation for tracking both technical and operational data across the engineering lifecycle of a product. By focusing on productization, companies can overcome traceability challenges and unlock the benefits of end-to-end traceability.