Digital sovereignty is a guiding principle in the industrial strategies of the German federal government and the EU. They are closely linked to the topic of sustainability and the path to Industry 5.0. Circular economy and climate protection, the safe handling of artificial intelligence (AI), the "entrainment" of people and new digital technologies are the focus here. The requirement to develop, manufacture and operate products in a resource-conserving manner means that product lifecycle management (PLM) is growing into an even more central role.

Our author Patrick Müller describes how companies can ensure the sovereign handling of product data in all phases of the product lifecycle and position themselves to be future-proof, resilient and versatile through self-determined action. In his article, he takes up the current trends in the transformation processes of discrete manufacturing and shows why PLM is the key for successful digitization initiatives. And he derives new topics from the market environment that will shape business models and the further development of PLM software in the context of Industry 5.0.

Product Data Journal Issue 2, December 2021