Matching Circularity Improvements and Digital Product Passport Viewpoints: Insights from Three Industrial Case Studies

The digital product passport (DPP) is in the hub of the twin (both digital and green) transition as it combines the European strategy for data as well as the European Green Deal. Further, DPP is a hot topic as the European Commission is pushing its use in selected forerunner domains, such as the battery, textile, and electronics sectors. A DPP's design and implementation involve extensive decision points to consider. Our goal is to develop the minimum viable DPPs for three manufacturing companies representing a consumer electronics manufacturer, an aerospace component supplier, and a logistics system provider. To begin with, the main purposes of DPPs were discovered. The study is based on the circular economy (CE) matrix interviews and a DPP survey with nine viewpoints. The CE maturity matrix matches five CE maturity levels to the linear value chain of manufacturing and identifies the CE status of the companies via the actions implemented. On the other hand, the DPP survey maps the relevant DPP viewpoints to the cases. We found that the DPP viewpoints stressing business transparency and product-life tracking got the most hits. Further, the company born to be circular selected seven out of nine viewpoints. Finally, we mapped the CE actions of each company to the DPP viewpoints on each manufacturing value chain phase. The mapping of the viewpoints will help the design of minimum viable DPP for the manufacturing companies.