In today’s rapidly evolving industrial landscape, achieving sustainability in the face of limited resources, environmental degradation and ongoing climate change, while remaining competitive in a global economy, is one of the most difficult challenges for the producing industry. To address this challenge, the PSS-Pass project presents a forward-looking vision aimed to transform industry practices by introducing the concept of a Digital Product Service System Passport (DPSSP) for industrial companies who extend their products with digital services going beyond Digital Product Passports (DPPs) and redefine how products and services are designed, used, refurbished, reused and recycled in order to become sustainable while increasing competitiveness.
Enabling circularity through DPSSP
Sustainable manufacturing requires systemic change supported by robust, interoperable and trusted digital tools. The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is already a critical enabler for circularity, providing detailed product-related information to stakeholders throughout the value chain. The PSS-Pass project goes beyond the DPP by incorporating data on both products and the services that surround them within the concept of Product Service System (PSS) building the DPSSP. This approach will be a key driver for improvements in life cycle assessment of products and services, and in decision making for efficient product reuse, refurbishment and recycling by analysing data from DPSSPs.
PSS-Pass also considers interoperability for DPSSPs by developing a digital environment built on existing architectures like the Asset Administration Shell (AAS). It integrates emerging ontologies, such as the PSS ontology, and enables the use of circular economy data for building services. Additionally, it aligns with initiatives like the Industrial Ontology Foundry (IOF) and applies FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. This ensures that manufacturers and other stakeholders can seamlessly share and use DPSSPs across sectors and value chains.
Driving innovation with digital twins-based simulation framework and AI
In PSS-Pass the DPSSP serves as the foundation for further exploitation in Digital Twin (DT) based Simulation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Spaces. Based on such technologies new DPSSP-based Services will evolve in the project to forecast and reduce environmental impacts and enable a circular economy. The DT-based simulation framework for PSS will be based on a Multi-Agent Simulation approach to elaborate the infrastructure of the distributed simulation framework, to develop PSS-Pass-specific business components for DT-based simulation of PSS, and to ensure a human-centred AI solution (e.g. based on the Strategic Research, Innovation and Deployment Agenda (SRIDA) etc.). AI pipelines will support designers in decision making in selecting environmentally friendly design parameters of products in a bi-objective optimisation minimising Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) impacts while minimising Life Cycle Costing (LCC) through:
- automatic LCC/LCA calculation (using machine learning algorithms)
- product design optimisation (from exhaustive search to an evolutionary computation algorithm)
- decision support for PSS reuse (in the n-th lifecycle).
PSS-Pass Pilots: Turning vision into reality
To ensure the practical applicability, PSS-Pass integrates its innovations into real-world scenarios in three different project pilots:
- Home appliances (Electrolux): Demonstrates the extension of existing DPPs for home appliances, such as washing machines. It shows how DPSSPs can support manufacturer, third-party, or self-maintenance, leading to certified second-market opportunities. It also shows how DPSSPs are used to enable updates and upgrades of home appliances in synchronisation with their DPSSPs.
- Complex equipment systems (OAS): Demonstrates the collection, storage, semantic integration, and enrichment of data accessible via the DPSSP to enable or simplify predictive maintenance, Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tracking, and decision support for reuse, refurbishment, or recycling of equipment.
- Textile industry (Ternua): Demonstrates how PSS-Pass solutions simplify retrieving, exchanging, and integrating information from business partners across the supply chain. Additionally, the DPSSP will show the provision of valuable insights of the usage phase of Ternua products. This information is leveraged in DPSSP services in order to demonstrate comprehensive lifecycle assessment, including product end-of-life management and design optimization.
These pilots not only demonstrate the applicability and scalability of the DPSSP framework but also provide valuable feedback for refining PSS-Pass tools and methodologies.
Empowering employees and stakeholders
The overall transition to a circular industry paradigm ensures that sustainability remains a central role of technological advances. But such a transition requires more than technological innovation; it also requires a cultural shift. An essential part of PSS-Pass is therefore the dissemination and communication of the project’s vision and outcomes through workshops, webinars or exhibitions, to reach policy makers, academia, industry, consumers and standardisation/certification bodies and guarantee a strong impact on a large scale.
In addition, the PSS-Pass project’s commitment to transparency and interoperability builds trust among stakeholders and encourages collaboration across industries and sectors. Its open science practices and contributions to standardisation efforts ensure that the benefits of the DPSSP will extend beyond the life of the project.
Shaping the future of sustainable production
The PSS-Pass vision is closely aligned with global sustainability goals and the European Union’s ambitions for clean and climate neutral industrial value chains, circular economy & climate-neutral digital systems & infrastructures. By integrating advanced digital tools with a focus on lifecycle thinking, PSS-Pass paves the way for a transformative change in manufacturing practices. Its innovative approach not only improves environmental sustainability but also creates new business opportunities and supports positioning European industry as leading driver of sustainable innovation.
Authors: Kevin Nagorny, Ana Correia, Christian Wolff, Bruno Silva
