A Meta-model based Approach for LCA-oriented Product Data Management

Abstract The collection of useful information from all stages of product lifecycle is on the premise to complete a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of the product. This naturally leads to the necessity to provide computerized tools to support a humanexpert. Unfortunately, most current employed information systems in the industry do not effectively support LCA-oriented data management. In this paper, a meta-model based approach for LCA oriented product life cycle related data retrieval and integration is proposed, which not only increases the efficiency but also ensure the consistency and traceability of data collection for LCA study.In this study, product life cycle is characterized from perspectives of product entity, operations upon the product entity and resulting process inventory. Then, a data meta model that defines the basic structure and contents of LCA-oriented dataset of the identified life cycle stage of identified product entity is proposed. Based on the proposed meta model, the multi-layer architecture of a LCA-oriented data service tool is then developed. It is consisted of the “Client” layer with interfaces for users to make life cycle data requests; the “Meta-model builder” layer to configure and parse the meta model for data source connection and data model instantiation; the “Data source access” layer which builds connections between data sources and the meta-model and realizes heterogeneous data retrieval and integration from different sources. The proposed approach is expected to ease the difficulties in performing LCA, especially in sorting, retrieval and integration of valuable data from exiting product and process models for life cycle modelling, and thus to better facilitate environment-friendly product design and manufacturing.