Proposition of an Analysis Framework to Describe the "Activeness" of a Product during Its Life Cycle Part II: Method and Applications

This paper proposes application guidelines and two case studies for the analysis framework presented in a previous paper. This analysis framework describes the situations of interaction between a collective of "intelligent / active" products and a support system for a given function. This analysis framework contains two views (functional and organic), which can be divided into several sections that describe the different facets of the interaction situation. After presenting the application guidelines, two case studies, undertaken to test and validate the analysis framework, are reported. The first concerns the "product-driven" control of a real manufacturing cell. The resource allocation and product routing functions were more particularly studied. The second application concerns the advanced diagnosis of complex transportation systems in a railway context.