A spatio-temporal product lifecycle network representation

Abstract

Product lifecycle is a complex network with large supply chains from multiple organisations. Lifecycle assessment of products of organisations with globally dispersed manufacturing supply chains and international market involves various spatial and temporal constraints. Even though organisations have data of their global supply chains, data is typically stored textually as spreadsheets, or visually as process flow charts. Visual representation of this large data using flow charts makes it complex and difficult to read and interpret. A decluttered, simplified product lifecycle data representation method is presented in this paper, which is developed for use alongside an LCA tool.