What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to develop a framework that improves product compliance management in complex circular supply chains.

March 25, 2026Open Access

Data Interoperability in European Product Conformity Management for Circular Supply Chains: Digital Twins and a Legal Knowledge & Data Model for linking law making and product manufacturing

Key Points

The aim is to develop a framework that improves product compliance management in complex circular supply chains.
Proposes a Digital Product Compliance Management (DPCM) framework with interlinked digital twins.
Utilizes a Digital Regulation Document (DRD) for machine-readable regulatory requirements.
Implements a Digital Product Passport (DPP) for comprehensive product data aggregation.
Employs a Digital Intervention Pattern (DIP) for digitizing compliance measures.
Explores AI techniques, particularly Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), for proactive compliance monitoring.
The DPCM framework facilitates semantic and syntactic interoperability for seamless data exchange.
Demonstrates practical applicability in the circular economy context, particularly in automotive.
Provides traceable audit trails of compliance through the use of digital twins.

Abstract

The European Green Deal and emerging EU regulations (e. g. the Batteries Regulation and the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)) emphasize the need for robust product compliance management to support circular economy goals. However, ensuring regulatory compliance across complex supply chains and product lifecycles remains challenging due to fragmented data silos and a lack of interoperability. In response, this paper proposes a Digital Product Compliance Management (DPCM) framework leveraging three interlinked digital twins: the Digital Regulation Document (DRD), the Digital Product Passport (DPP), and the Digital Intervention Pattern (DIP). Specifically, the DRD encapsulates regulatory requirements in a machine-readable form for automated processing and the DPP aggregates comprehensive product data (including materials, usage, and end-of-life information) across the value chain. The DIP digitizes compliance measures and its outcomes, providing a traceable audit trail of conformance. By connecting these digital twins, the DPCM framework facilitates organizational, semantic and syntactic interoperability, enabling seamless data exchange and a shared understanding of compliance information among diverse stakeholders, especially in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes. The authors further “touches” Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, particularly Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to experiment on automatically retrieve and interpret of relevant regulatory semantic and product data for proactive compliance monitoring. A case study in Circular Economy of automotive business proofs the practical applicability of DPCM in circular economy context. Finally, the authors outlines recommendations for the enhancement of the DPP as well as future research directions specifically on data interoperability aspects in product compliance management processes.

Data Interoperability in European Product Conformity Management for Circular Supply Chains: Digital Twins and a Legal Knowledge & Data Model for linking law making and product manufacturing

Key Points

Abstract

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