On 28th January DIAL hosted the Smart Products Through-Life workshop which was second in the series of three initiated by The Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) at the University of Strathclyde.

The first workshop which was attended by DIAL’s Vaggelis Giannikas, was hosted by the University of Strathclyde on 29th October 2015. The aim of the first workshop was to spark interest, establish collaboration and outline the research roadmap required to support smart products through-life.

The goal of the Cambridge workshop was to further develop the ideas and the roadmap, with the final roadmap submitted to the EPSRC after the third workshop. The workshop was attended by number of academics from the University of Strathclyde, Cranfield University, University of Glasgow, University of Bath, Bristol University, Loughborough University, Northumbria University, Bournemouth University, De Montford University and University of Cambridge.

Part of the workshop were activities which aimed to:

• Find the connections between technologies/systems/life phases/management associated with the smart products concept
• Brainstorm ideas and challenges associated with the deployment of a specific smart product (e.g. smart pen and smart rice cooker)
• Identify challenges associated with the smart product concept for each life phase of a product (from research and product developments to repair and remanufacturing).