Digital Product Passport: Five Things Machine and Plant Manufacturers Need to Know Now

1. Definition: What is the digital product passport?

The digital product passport (DPP) is a product-specific data record that identifies the key characteristics of a product. In future, every pump, every electric car battery, and every item of clothing will have its own electronic ID document containing various information, such as:

• Product name
• Manufacturer and place of manufacture
• Materials used
• Recycling options
• Environmental impact
• Declarations of conformity 
• Information on environmental and social indicators
• Instructions for operation or use
• Warranty and maintenance information

All of this data together forms a digital product twin, which should be made available to every stakeholder in the supply chain and throughout the entire lifecycle of a product.

2. Objectives: Why do I need a digital product passport?

The DPP makes an important contribution to sustainability and the circular economy. Its purpose is to improve and extend the use of products by providing information on how to use them properly. The DPP is also intended to simplify the repair, recycling, or re-purposing of products and facilitate responsible disposal.

In the consumer goods sector, a digital product passport helps consumers to make sustainable purchasing decisions. In the industrial sector, it gives system operators access to information about the maintenance, servicing, and performance optimization of a machine, while disposal companies can find out about recycling options for the materials and components used without searching through reams of information.

3. Background to the DPP and the current situation

The idea for a DPP emerged back in 2019 when the European Green Deal was presented for the first time at a European level as a roadmap to a climate-neutral circular economy. An important part of the Green Deal is the Circular Economy Action Plan. All these plans are intended to ensure that products are designed for greater sustainability. To this end, manufacturers must digitally record sustainability-relevant product data and make this available to the entire value chain – namely in the form of a product passport. 

The legal basis is embedded in the new European Ecodesign Directive on sustainable products. In Germany, a standard for the product passport is being discussed within the environment ministry's environmental policy digital agenda, for example. 

Further standards are also intended to simplify its implementation, such as DIN 77005, which sets out the framework for lifecycle records for technical plants. These are also intended to provide information on the recovery and recycling of technical products and therefore offer valuable starting points for a product passport.

When will the DPP rules come into force?

The new Ecodesign Directive was adopted at the end of 2023 and is expected to come into effect during 2024. The EU Commission will then introduce regulations for individual product groups. From that time, affected manufacturers will have 18 months to introduce a digital product passport for their products.

In the future, the passport will become the standard for all products and services covered by the Ecodesign Directive. Batteries with a capacity of more than 2 kWh will be one of the first product categories to fall under the new regulations, requiring a battery passport from 2027 in order to be sold in the EU.

4. Requirements: What is in store for machinery, plant, and appliance manufacturers?

The Ecodesign Directive will impact companies in every sector within the European Union. Manufacturers of machines, plants, and appliances are also required to make their products more sustainable.

With the Ecodesign Directive not only demanding transparency regarding product information, but also aiming to strengthen the right to repair, companies must additionally provide all the necessary repair and maintenance information and make the requisite spare parts available.

Technical requirements

The technical design of the digital product passport has not yet been finalized, although the EU Ecodesign Directive already contains numerous details on the technical requirements:

• Full interoperability
• Free access for consumers, commercial actors, and other stakeholders
• Secure data storage and processing
• Verification of the authenticity, reliability, and integrity of data
• Data security and data protection

The product information contained in the passport must be digitally available in the supply chain and linked to the corresponding product. Machine users can then access the data via a QR code or barcode, for example. These are stored by the manufacturer and in a planned DPP register.

The task of the aftersales and technical writing teams of the affected companies will be to identify all the relevant product information and collate it into a single source of information. 

5. The next steps: What should machine manufacturers do? 

The product passport leaves machine and system manufacturers facing extensive information obligations. The introduction and development of the product passport may not have been finalized yet, but one thing is certain: once the Ecodesign Directive has come into force and the rules for the first product groups have been adopted, manufacturers will only have 18 months to implement the legal requirements for the product passport.

Companies in the machine construction sector should waste no time and start making arrangements right now. In specific terms this could mean, for example, pooling the responsibility for manuals and instructions, product passports, labeling, product websites and packaging, and establishing a single source of product information. Firstly, this is good for the environment. Secondly, transparency when it comes to performance, repair, and recycling information also means greater sustainability across the entire service spectrum. 

Information twins as the basis for the digital product passport

Aftersales and service play a vital role in the digitization and orchestration of product information and in promoting sustainability in machine construction and globally.

Information management systems are an indispensable tool on the road to the sustainable manufacture of machines. One such systems is Quanos InfoTwin. This digital information twin for plants and machines contains all the requisite information about individual components and spare parts, as well as details about correct operation and maintenance. 

Find out more about how Quanos InfoTwin can help you to implement effective sustainability measures in your day-to-day service operations:

Best practices for sustainable service

The European Commission sees digital product passports as the enabler of a sustainable circular economy and transparent product data. A prerequisite for the success of the product passport is the digitization of your product data. With technology from Quanos, you are perfectly positioned to help pave the way to a resource-efficient and sustainable circular economy.