Bringing light into the darkness - how lifecycle mapping supports digitization and industry 4.0.

Driven by Industry 4.0 and digitization, many companies seek to increase efficiency by putting information management into the focus. Key to success is the ability to identify relevant information and transform it into marketable products fast and efficiently. This requires a lean management of all digital models that have to be handled in the course of the product and process development process. Many companies are still struggling to achieve such a lean information management. Lifecycle Mapping is a simple yet powerful tool to design a lean and efficient information flow following the product lifecycle. The paper shows how this method can be applied. © Carl Hanser Verlag, München.