These slides were presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

In today's product development landscape, a technology or functional data management system is crucial for the entire product lifecycle. Technology data or functional data, which emerges early as requirements and target data, is continuously refined throughout various development phases. In particular, simulation plays a vital role by utilizing these data from measurement series, HiL tests, and field trials to generate numerous load cases and create new technology data. Additionally, technology data is found in systems engineering as parameter sets that assist in configurations and functional models. With upcoming regulations like the Digital Product Passport, the collection and management of these data for achieving sustainability goals will become increasingly important. But not only in systems engineering, but also in many application cases across various disciplines, technology data is utilized and increasingly appears as its own data type. This raises the requirement for a technology data-oriented data management system that manages the data not only for product development but also for later lifecycle phases, providing it in a context- and requirement-appropriate manner throughout the entire circular economy. A technology data management system encompasses several key components such as seamless, highly integrated and easy data collection and integration from diverse sources, standardization of data formats for compatibility, and a normalized standard data storage procedure, advanced analysis and visualization tools for extracting and visualization of technology data items such as curves or matrices, as well as robust lifecycle tracking capabilities that monitor each technology data item from request to delivery through to end-of-life disposal. Establishing feedback loops between the different phases of the product lifecycle ensures continuous improvement, while effective regulatory compliance mechanisms help organizations adhere to stringent environmental standards. The presentation will highlight the benefits of an effective technology data management system and demonstrate how companies can optimize their processes, for example, within the framework of a processing procedure.