Collaborative life cycle management between suppliers and OEM

Collaboration between suppliers and OEM customers should not be restricted to selling finished components on order. Collaboration should rather go into strategic partnership, covering the whole life cycle of products (see below). The basis for tight collaboration is the agreement on processes, communication and exchange of valuable product information. Within its IndustrialIT initiative ABB is creating valuable product information throughout the whole company in a standardized manner. In order to qualify product information, ABB has installed a certification process, which enables products to carry the quality label “IndustrialIT certified”. Further on ABB has installed the communication and data exchange mechanisms to exchange such product information throughout the whole life cycle of products with the customer. What is needed now for successful implementation is an industry wide agreement on common business processes as an envelope around product life cycle data.