Product lifecycle management (PLM) as a holistic process encompasses the idea generation for a product, its conception, and its production, as well as its operating phase. Numerous tools and data models are used throughout this process. In recent years, industry and academia have developed integration concepts to realize efficient PLM across all domains and phases. However, the solutions available in practice need specific interfaces and tend to be vendor dependent. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) aims to be a standardized digital representation of an asset (e.g., a product). In accordance with its objective, it has the potential to integrate all data generated during the PLM process into one data model and to provide a universally valid interface for all PLM phases. However, to date, there is no holistic concept that demonstrates this potential. The goal of this research work is to develop and validate such an AAS-based concept. This article demonstrates the application of the AAS in an order-controlled production process, including the semi-automatic generation of PLM-related AAS data. Furthermore, it discusses the potential of the AAS as a standard interface providing a smooth data integration throughout the PLM process.

Technological progress, upcoming cyber-physical systems, and limited resources confront small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the challenge of complexity management in product development projects spanning over the entire product lifecycle. SMEs require a solution for documenting and analyzing the functional relationships between multiple domains such as products, software, and processes. The German research project FuPEP “Funktionsorientiertes Komplexitätsmanagement in allen Phasen der Produktentstehung” aims to address this issue by developing an assistance system that supports product developers by visualizing functional relationships. This paper presents the methodology and results of the assistance system’s requirements elicitation with two SMEs. Conducting the elicitation during a global pandemic, we discuss its application using specific techniques in light of COVID-19. We model problems and their effects regarding complexity management in product development in a system dynamics model. The most important requirements and use cases elicited are presented, and the requirements elicitation methodology and results are discussed. Additionally, we present a multilayer software architecture design of the assistance system. Our case study suggests a relationship between fear of a missing project focus among project participants and the restriction of requirements elicitation techniques to those possible via web conferencing tools.