This document discusses the challenges of efficient data management for sustainable product design. It notes that legal frameworks like RoHS, REACH, and WEEE place huge demands on companies' data management systems. Existing systems for managing this data have limitations, including lack of integration between systems, uncertainty over data security, and dependence on externally controlled systems. The paper then presents a new solution called the iPoint Compliance Agent that aims to address these issues by enabling the automated exchange and integration of data across a company's internal systems and external sources to facilitate compliance checks throughout the supply chain.

1. Challenges of an efficient data management for sustainable product design
Thomas Leitner
1
, Marek Stachura
1
, Andreas Schiffleitner
1
, Nick Stein
1
1
KERP Center of Excellence Electronics & Environment, Vienna, Austria
Abstract
Legal frameworks such as RoHS, REACH, WEEE and ERP are huge demands on companies and their data
management. Furthermore, issues of sustainability are increasingly important at the product level and must also be
considered in data management. Data exchange provides technical and logistical problems. Some companies have in-
house solutions developed to retrieve the needed information from their suppliers. Other companies rely upon online
systems that offer a core collection of data. This central collection of data however usually means manual or semi-
manual interfacing with the internal PDM/PLM systems, uncertainties concerning data security for the customer and
questions of the protection of the intellectual property for the final product manufacturer and supplier with it. Additionally,
this means the dependence on externally controlled systems outside their own sphere of influence. A key problem with
existing systems is the compatibility or lack thereof between them. Currently, no data exchange between the systems
has been realized, which makes an automate process for data inquiry and vertical data integrations more difficult. It is
also important to consider that the exchange of information for data management information is not a bilateral, but via
the entire supply chain.
The paper shows the recent developments and possible solutions in this area, an overview of the challenges of an
efficient material data management and provides the first solution that will implement all requirements of a modern
system.
Keywords:
Sustainable development, material data management, recycling, life cycle assessment, standards, laws
18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, Braunschweig, 2011
1 BACKGROUND: CURRENT SITUATION
Manufacturer and importers have to take complex and difficult to
manage legal regulations into account with the product
development, export or import of products. Companies usually
operate on a global market, therefore they meet different
requirements in the different regions of the world, countries or
districts (eg. in Europe the REACH and RoHS, in Asia the China
and Japan RoHS or the Asian REACH adaptations, the Toxic
Substances Control Act from USA or California's RoHS). This
demands a huge effort through the introduction of the necessary
and usually very specific knowledge on the one side (like
Interpretation and fulfillment of the requirements) but also a
massive data flow on the other side (like the Material data
exchange in the complex supply chains). But additionally the
companies constrained are able to rapidly and cost-effectively
adapt on the world market to remain competitive (permanently
shorten time-to-market margins with lower prices). The balance
between the very complex legal requirements and the market
pressure increases the risk that compliance with the law, for some
products, will not be secure enough. That situation can be very
critical for the company. The risk of regulatory non-compliance
increases with time additionally because the regulations do not stay
static, but will be continuous developed and adapted (eg. regularly
extension of the SVHC-list of REACH). For these reasons, manual
processing of the compliance problems is, in everyday operation,
not feasible.
Available already on the market are the first software tools that
consider the issue of legal compliance for products and try to solve
this problem with varying success.
2 OVERVIEW OF SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR MATERIAL
DATA MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL COMPLIANCE
For supply chain communication and legal compliance checks, and
to cope with sustainability and CSR strategies, the following main
types of solutions are currently used in the industries:
1. Outsourcing to a third party service provider: Currently a common
way. Advantages: Flexible, fast, low investment cost.
Disadvantages: High transaction costs, no data integration into
internal or external systems, no automation of recurring processes,
no economies of scale, outsourcing of critical know-how and
confidential information, no sustainability or CSR function.
2. Self-developed, proprietary company-centric systems: Tailored to
individual requirements, they can be connected to an existing PDM.
Implementation costs are high, as these systems are unique and
individually developed allowing no economies of scale to be
harnessed. Only big companies are able to cope with this.
Redundancy is created as data from each supplier needs to be
customized for each individual system. Integration of sustainability
and CSR is possible but costly.
3. Online Platform (IMDS, CAMDS, BOMCheck, part miner): Online-
platforms are centrally held databases, with component/material-
oriented information. Some of them include legal compliance
information to specific legal standards (e.g. ROHS, REACH).
Advantages: Simple to use, Re-Use of existing data.
Disadvantages: Outsourcing of critical know how, lack of concept
for incomplete data (it is implausible that every supplier worldwide
would upload their component information); missing strategy for
data maintenance, no support for supplier communication, no
flexibility to individual requirements.

2. 4. In-house Database (e.g. SAP “C2P compliance for products”,
PTC “InSight”, Siemens UGS “TeamCenter”): The big global PDM
system providers start providing shares of such solutions. None of
them can actually provide an industrial “ready to go” solution. Their
advantage is the good position for integration to their own
respective PDM system; disadvantage: Lack of integration into all
other systems, and missing functionality.
3 CONCEPT OF A DATA MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE
SYSTEM
In the electronics industry, there a number of several parallel
systems for the communication, changing of material data and
compliance checks in the supply chain can be expected. Therefore,
a flexible exchange of information between the systems is needed.
The exchange of information shall take pace between the
commercial software solutions such as IMDS and BOMcheck; also
between the existing in-house IT environments such as PDM /
PLM’s and between various public data systems, such as the
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) or product data bases such
the German hazardous materials information system (GESTIS).
The software integration tool iPoint Compliance Agent (IPCA)
implements this approach. The system accesses the existing
component, material and substance data throughout the value
chain. Additionally for the communication outside of existing
systems iPCA offers a module for data delivery/import the Supplier
Entry Portal (see Figure 1).
Internal Systems
PDM/PLM
Customers /
Manufacturer
Stakeholder
Supplier Entry
Portal (SEP)
Supplier Entry
Portal (SEP)
External SystemsExternal Systems
GESTIS
Supplier
Supplier
Supplier
Supplier
Compliance &
Risk Management
Supplier
Supplier
Supplier
EnvironLexEnvironLex
Internal Systems
Supplier
With agent-
technology for
active data search
Figure 1: Integration of systems in iPCA
In iPCA an open communication between different systems is
implemented. Thereby a corresponding user administration with
clearly defined rights has been developed. This ensures high data
security (intellectual property), while providing filtered and task-
oriented access to the required data. In order to effectively secure
the intellectual property of the manufacturers, the iPCA application
runs locally on the in-house system. Thus, all product-specific data
(bill of material, specifications, compliance documents, etc.) are
saved and managed exclusively on the in-house PDM systems.
Figure 2 shows the complete process of conformity assessment by
iPCA. The compliance check of a product is started by the user
(legal or quality managers) by automatically importing of the bill of
material (BOM) from the in-house PDM system. The input data will
be automatically imported and verified by iPCA. The check includes
both the correctness of the individual items in the bill of material and
for all components an configuration will be conducted (by part
number) with the component data already saved in the system.
Components that are already entered in the system and contain
sufficient supplier information will be identified and used for the
further bill of material analyses and compliance checks.
User-Interaction
System Automatic
Legend
Supplier - Interaction
Compliance Agent Data
Import (PDM)
Data Check
Data request to supplier
Data Declaration/Export:
(Substances, MSDS, etc)
Entrance test / data confirm
Compliance – Check
(RoHS, REACH, etc)
Documentation Save
(MSDS, etc.)
Data Passing
(substance/preparation/part etc)
Feedback to PDM
(Data Saving in PDM)
Creation of Reports
(Self-Declaration, MSDS etc.)
Risk Management
Figure 2: Process flow to compliance checks by iPCA
For new unknown components or components with insufficient
information, the appropriate suppliers will be asked to deliver the
relevant information via the Supplier Entry Portal. Thereby the
system constantly monitors information already existing in the
system or available on publicly held sources. The input information
(material declaration, conformity certificate, negative declaration,
etc) will be checked on their plausibility and completeness by the
user and by positive result saved in the system. Otherwise a next
query will be sent to the supplier. The process of information
collection is automated and the user interaction is reduced to a
necessary minimum (input data control). In the next step the
complete bill of material will be checked for compliance with pre-
defined legal requirements (e.g. ROHS, REACH, ELV etc.).
Changes in the legislation are supported by experts/system
managers and regularly updated. A completed compliance check
must be approved by user before saving the information in the in-
house PDM system. Based on the proved BOM and generated
information the relevant reports will be created automatically by the
system (e.g. MSDS, reports for public regulators, declaration letters
etc.). The iPoint Compliance Agent organizes, and manages the
entire process of information collection, integration into in-house
systems, analysis and reporting.
As well as the compliance check, the information collected in the
system gives a good basis to provide the sustainability strategies in
the product development.
4 PRODUCT DATA MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental considerations are becoming increasingly significant
in the product development process. As a result, the developer
must also consider the environmental product’s characteristics in
the whole life cycle.
The iPoint LCA Module provides a user-friendly tool which enables
the user to swiftly generate a detailed product image throughout its
entire life cycle (see Figure 3). This enables the user to calculate

3. the environmental impact caused by the product and take action
where necessary according to ISO 14040.
selection of
predefined
processes
selection of
predefined
processes
Data
Input
Life Cycle
Impact
Calculation
Results
material
production
use recycling disposal
selection
of
predefined
processes
selection
of
predefined
processes
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
designrelevantinformation
manu-
facturing
Material
library
define use
phase
parameter
define use
phase
parameter
Eco indicator 99
0
10
20
30
40
50
mineral extraction
fossil fuels
ozone layer
depletion
climate change
ecotoxicity
acidification
Process
library
LCA
library
Wizard
selection of
predefined
processes
selection of
predefined
processes
Data
Input
Life Cycle
Impact
Calculation
Results
material
production
use recycling disposal
selection
of
predefined
processes
selection
of
predefined
processes
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
designrelevantinformation
manu-
facturing
Material
library
define use
phase
parameter
define use
phase
parameter
Eco indicator 99
0
10
20
30
40
50
mineral extraction
fossil fuels
ozone layer
depletion
climate change
ecotoxicity
acidification
Process
library
LCA
library
Wizard
selection of
predefined
processes
selection of
predefined
processes
define use
phase
parameter
automatic
by material
flow
automatic
by material
flow
Figure 3: Work flow for LCA with the iPCA
A huge detailed set of environmental data is needed for a
comprehensive analysis of products. Using the iPoint LCA Module
means no more tedious research. The iPoint LCA Module connects
to an existing database and integrates this data in the structural
product model. The built-in wizard mode helps to minimize the time
needed for input and makes using the iPoint LCA Module really
easy. The degree of product assessment can be set free to the
product or individual assemblies and components. Of course it is
possible to add fast and easy, unique and individual LCA
processes.
As result of the analysis an eco profile is available. Different
indicators like Global Warming Potential (GWP) or Cumulative
Energy Demand (CED) can be calculated. These results are
available for customers and public authorities via an export function.
Part of the iPoint Compliance Agent materials management system,
the RRR module (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), provides the means to
quantify precisely these issues. It supplies the developer with
information on end-of-life product characteristics, which can
otherwise only be compiled through the expensive process of
physical prototype disassembly. Thanks to the product’s structured
presentation and its pre-loaded recycling profiles, the occasional
user will find it simple and efficient to use. Furthermore, using the
facility for complete material flow simulation, expert users can
exploit the full range of RRR calculation opportunities. The recycling
profiles used in the calculations contain essential end-of-life
technical and financial data on recycling and disposal processes.
This makes it possible to conduct an assessment of end-of-life
properties for various markets and technologies without additional
modeling costs.
5 CONCLUSION
A modern data management in business should not only rapidly
and efficiently collect and evaluate the necessary data but also be
able to use the full potential of the given information portfolio and
thereby protect the sustainable existence of the company and its
products. Furthermore, this system should be at the forefront of
innovation, obtaining an advantage in competition on the market.
Started by covering of legal accomplish effectively, the Compliance
Agent takes next step into the modern sustainability of products and
produced organizations. This step will be done through a minimum
of additional effort because of a very efficient management of the
given and accessible data and information (see Figure 4).
According to a recent analysis of global active companies;
sustainably oriented organizations have a clear higher longevity and
increased development opportunities in the global market.
Supplier Information
(e.g. material declarations)
REACh,
RoHS etc.
RRR LCA
Material Data Management
PDM Information
(e.g. BOM)
Legal
Conformity
Extern Sorces
(e.g. IUCLID, GESTIS, ..)
Recycling
Parameters
Environmentally
Information
Further
Aspects (?)
Product Design Optimization
?
Figure 4: iPCA overview about Data and functions
6 LIST OF REFERENCES
[1] Hargroves, K., Smith, M.H. “The Natural Advantage of
Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance
in the 21st Century”, Earthscan, London, 2005
[2] Pierfrancesco Manenti, Robert Parker, Giorgio Micheletti,
“The business case for environmental excellence is real”,
IDC/Atos Origin, 2009
[3] Stefan Salhofer, Andreas Schiffleitner, “Relevance of
recycling processes for complex products”, SETAC Europe
15th LCA Case Studies Symposium, 2009