GreenConfiguration with CAS Merlin CPQ
Years of research for an optimal result
The past few months have made it clear that the economic consumption of energy and raw materials has evolved from a moral motivation to becoming an everyday business reality. The focus on sustainable production with a view to saving resources or recyclability is now one of the most important company goals which is considered essential to a company's central strategy.
The evaluation and transparency of product sustainability is more important than ever before. This presents the suppliers of variant-rich products with a challenge: a large number of product variants makes the individual assessment of each variant almost impracticable.
The aim of the GreenConfiguration is to take ecological sustainability into account during configuration and make it transparent before the actual production stage.
Your advantages with GreenConfiguration
Aligning the configuration of complex products with sustainability goals- Transparency and comparability of the environmental impact of each component
- Traceability of the sustainability of every configuration decision
- Sustainability information can be recorded and visualized for specific target groups
Ecological sustainability in product configuration
Sustainability is divided into three dimensions: ecological, economic and social. As part of GreenConfiguration technology, CAS Merlin CPQ focuses primarily on the ecological dimension. In addition, AIA® Optimization supports the sales department in optimizing the configuration according to specific criteria such as CO2 emissions and delivery time by using smart wizards to weight and prioritize an almost perfect implementation of sustainable customer and sales requirements.
One major challenge is to bring together two areas, life cycle assessment and product configuration, which are each very complex in their own right. The field therefore offers countless research opportunities: How is an individually configured product ecologically assessed? Where does the necessary information on product composition come from? Which sustainability indicators are particularly relevant? How can satisfactory data quality be achieved?
These and many other complex issues could be solved on the one hand through years of experience in the configuration area and on the other hand with the help of the research project "ConCirMy - Configurator for the Circular Economy" research project.
Project profile
The project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), involved an intensive examination of the sustainability of products with many variants in combination with intelligent configuration. As part of the ConCirMy project, a tool was developed that provides various players in the supply chain with information on environmental compatibility. This information can then be taken into account in (purchasing) decisions.
Successful technology transfer
The new GreenConfiguration approach was developed and based on the research results. GreenConfiguration means making the ecological aspect of a product visible over the entire product life cycle. This enables a multi-layered optimization of the configuration, taking sustainability goals into account - an innovation on the market.
Research results with distinction
2019Start of the BMBF-funded research project "ConCirMy - Configurator for the Circular Economy"- 2021Discussion and presentation of research results on life cycle assessment in product configuration at the World Mass Customization & Personalization Conference in Aalborg, Denmark.
Expansion of research findings to include the design of a sustainability assessment-oriented system architecture for configurators at the 23rd International Workshop on Configuration in Vienna, Austria
Winner of the “Best Student Paper” award for “Integrating Sustainability Information in Configurators”. The following points were particularly noteworthy: The architecture of the CPQ solution and how it includes a suitable level of detail when viewing the product over its entire life cycle. And how the system architecture enables a component-by-component allocation according to the modular product structure. - 2022Publication of scientific findings on the topic: "How can optimization work in a configurator?" at the Configuration Workshop in Graz, Austria.
Based on this work, an optimization function was implemented in CAS Merlin CPQ in the same year and options for visualizing sustainability data in the configuration were created.
A short time later, a customer project was started in the area of GreenConfiguration with the aim of making the CO₂ emissions of the configuration visible and reducing them using the optimization function.
The future of GreenConfiguration
Our pioneering work in the field of sustainability in product configuration has laid the foundation for future innovations. We have built up important expertise and successfully translated findings into new product features within a very short space of time. Together with partners and customers, we are working enthusiastically to drive research forward and apply the knowledge gained directly in practice.
Do you have any questions?
We will be happy to advise you.
Our CPQ experts are available to you by phone. You can also send us your questions, requests and suggestions using the contact form.
Sales Team
Tel: +49 721 9638-901