Exploring the strategic and technological considerations of the product ecosystem to facilitate a circular data flow

This paper provides an understanding of how product data flows can be elevated to better support manufacturing companies that aspire to be more service-oriented. This can be a challenge due to the multiple industries’ domains across the product life stages. This research focuses on an initial exploration to establish the context for the data flow system and the surrounding interacting ecosystem. An interconnected circular ecosystem of product data spans across both the production and the product in-use. It is of immense importance to set up an approach covering the barriers that can bridge theory and practice when strategizing. An additional focus is to consider how to expand data flows for better resource management. The findings show how correlating current technical advancement and desired circular value offering as part of the conceptualize of the data flow system can mitigate barriers for better management of resources.