Opportunities and Challenges of the Asset Administration Shell for Holistic Traceability in Supply Chain Management

Due to changing regulatory environments, evolving sustainability requirements, and the need to perform effective supply chain risk management, traceability systems have become an increasingly important aspect of supply chain management. However, globalized, interconnected supply chains require a dynamic mapping of direct and indirect relationships between companies and assets, driving traceability systems’ complexity. Here, the standardization of data formats provides an essential aspect to facilitate asset-related information sharing across companies. In this regard, the Asset Administration Shell is available as a holistic standardized digital representation of an asset. The representation of an asset via an Administration Shell includes data ensuring a clear identification of the Administration Shell and its assets as well as data describing aspects of the asset’s technical functionality in so-called submodels. Based on current literature and available prototypical concepts, this paper identifies the opportunities and challenges of the Asset Administration Shell when aiming to map interconnected multi-tier supply chains holistically and contextualizes their role in achieving holistic supply chain traceability.