Your Digital Product Passport rollout will be underpinned by data, so you've gotta have it on lock if you want a successful project. A solid structure and mapping make gathering, sorting, storing, and searching your data points a whole load easier. You'll be able to identify data gaps, become compliant with other regulations and legislations, and search or cross-reference without any drama.
Our DPP pros share their best practice tips and considerations for organizing your product data structure, so you can launch into your DPP project knowing exactly what to capture, what’s missing, and how to maximize what you’ve already collected.
Get the lowdown on Digital Product Passport legislation
1) Rethink your BoM data
It makes sense that your bill of materials data will be hooked up to your DPP platform; after all, it's the cornerstone of each product you create! DPP legislation is a good excuse to rethink your BoM data from a digital perspective — how are you storing the info, and how easy is it for a third-party DPP platform to extract via an integration? Could you revamp your data structure to make it super easy to search or cross-reference?
A good DPP platform will be able to integrate with multiple systems and extract data for you, so standardizing the tags or structures can make the process more streamlined (especially if you want to pull data in bulk). Ace it now and you could be setting yourself up for an easy life in future.
2) Map against regulatory requirements
The easiest way to identify data gaps (AKA project roadblocks!) is to make sure you're mapping the info you're capturing against the data fields specified in DPP regulations. At the time of writing this article, the exact DPP data points haven't been confirmed, but some platforms allow you to get started ASAP and circle back to close gaps when the official data points are released.
As CIRPASS-2 members, we used our insider knowledge to build our digital DPP solution, CheckLINQ, with a data-centric, flexible back end so it's easy to adapt when requirements are confirmed. You can use the (insanely effective) integrations to automatically pull data from the sources you've identified and pop them into a compliant format. Any gaps will be glaringly obvious!
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3) Know your regs and legs
Capturing and structuring data on a mass scale is no easy feat! Our experts recommend getting familiar with other regulations and legislations currently in effect, as well as those coming into effect in the future, to avoid 'double capturing' data points. For example, France's AGEC is already live and has very similar requirements to the EU's DPP, albeit more pared-back. California is also working on a similar regulation, so it pays to be in the know! You can find more information on upcoming legislations and regulations in our report Unpicking EU Compliance for Fashion and Textiles.
Get the intel you need to ace DPP compliance
A fab DPP rollout can do more than just make you compliant. Pick the right platform, and you could unlock the ability to axe manual handovers in favor of digitally linking product IDs with materials and compliance from day one. What about PLM-integrated labeling tools that carry DPP and RFID metadata? It's all possible (especially if you use CheckLINQ. Just sayin'!).
You can get specific action points for your team as part of our free DPP checklist, which is loaded with team-specific action points to help mobilize all areas of the business. It’ll help you identify missing data points and can even be adapted into a project plan, to help you ace your DPP rollout while squeezing maximum value out of it.
Get your hands on our free DPP checklist and start planning your project, or contact our team for more information on DPP solutions (because we’ve got ‘em!). Your product data will be looking tidy and compliant in no time 🔥
