Transparent Data Usage of Design Data through a Tracking and Tracing Model

Due to the increasing digitalization and globalization in today´s virtual product development, virtual products and design data are exchanged between a large number of participants in the global and collaborative design process. Since digital goods can be copied and distributed without someone´s awareness, after a product is virtually designed and passed on to a manufacturer, designers are missing knowledge and transparency about whether their data is further distributed or modified without their permission. Furthermore, nowadays products are often developed based on customer requirements and designers are missing knowledge about the actual use case. However, if designers would be provided with this information, they could provide their customers with hints about design improvement which would result in a more sustainable product development. Approaching this problem, the necessity of transparent data usage along the supply chain in order to create a more sustainable product development was identified. Therefore, a concept was developed which tracks and traces a virtual product to determine by who and where the data is used and how they are modified while not violating someone´s privacy. The concept proposes a novel data tracking and tracing model which consists of a tracking and tracing graph and tracking and tracing criteria. To validate the concept, a prototypical implementation was conducted and evaluated. The authors came to the conclusion that the presented concept can be used effectively to determine the current location and user of a virtual product. Moreover, the concept provides the data owner knowledge about whether their data was distributed without permission and feedback about the planned use case of a product thus creating a transparent and sustainable use of design data.