Digitalization : Data : Systemic Design : What works?

Dr Melanie King, Loughborough University

My personal website showcasing my research and developments

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Melanie King

Senior Lecturer Systems Engineering, Wolfson School, Loughborough University

Newly-published research: Reports on UK readiness for Battery Passports and Smart Labelling (EU Battery Regs)

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My latest research project ‘Battery Passports: Readiness of the UK Battery Manufacturing Sector, Ecosystem Opportunities & Implications for UK Industrial Policy‘ has now come to an end and I can now share with you, the now-published reports.

With the enactment of the new EU Battery Regulations (entered in to force on 17th August 2023), organisations are required to embrace Battery Passports and Smart Labelling, enabling transparency and sustainability in battery production and consumption. However, my research highlights critical gaps in awareness, information availability, and operational readiness raced by organisations in aligning with these legislative changes.

A representative survey was conducted to gauge the awareness and preparedness of 80 organisations in regard to the new EU Battery Regulations. An Industry-Academic round table discussion and follow-up interviews were then held to reflect on the implications for Industry.  The results can be downloaded in these two reports.

Results of a survey of UK-based organisations and those that supply to the UK/EU.

Report on a round table discussion and follow-up interviews.

EU Battery Regulations 2023: UK Readiness for Battery Passports and Smart Labelling – Report on a round table discussion and follow-up interviews

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Timms, P. D. & King, M. R. N. (2023) ‘EU Battery Regulations 2023: UK Readiness for Battery Passports and Smart Labelling – Report on a round table discussion and follow-up interviews’, DOI:https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.24083982

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EU Battery Regulations 2023: UK Readiness for Battery Passports and Smart Labelling – A survey of UK-based organisations and those that supply to the UK/EU

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King, M. R. N., & Timms, P. D., (2023) ‘EU Battery Regulations 2023: UK Readiness for Battery Passports and Smart Labelling –A survey of UK-based organisations and those that supply to the UK/EU’, DOI: https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.24083991

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Battery Passport Survey Launched

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    This work was carried out as part of a funded project – visit the project page to find out the results.

    This survey is now closed.

    This Survey closed on the 3rd March 2023. Organisations were asked to take part if they: Produce, manufacture, assemble, import, distribute, sell, operate, maintain, repair, refurbish, upgrade, remanufacture, recover, reuse, and recycle any type of battery, or any products that incorporate batteries.

    You don’t need to have an awareness of the EU’s new regulations to fill in this survey, we want to capture UK’s current levels of awareness and preparedness.

    Please can you spare between 15 – 60 minutes (you may not need to fill out all sections) to take part in this survey?  In the process you will find out more about the EU’s current trajectory for Battery Passports in the context of the forthcoming EU Battery Regulations.  The synthesised and anonymised results will be publicly available and will be used to feed into UK Policy discussions.

    • If you would like to read the questions we will ask before completing the survey, a copy can be downloaded here.
    • If you would like to read our explanations of the new information requirements and their impact on your organisation, a copy can be downloaded here.

    This work is being carried out as part of my funded project. The award comes via the Interact Network, which aims to bring together economic and social scientists, UK manufacturers, and digital technology providers to address the human issues resulting from the diffusion of new technologies in industry.  Made Smarter Network+. ESRC Grant no: ES/W007231/1.

    This survey closed on the 3rd March 2023.

    A proposed universal definition of a Digital Product Passport Ecosystem (DPPE): Worldviews, discrete capabilities, stakeholder requirements and concerns

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    King, M, Timms, P & Mountney, S. (2022) A proposed universal definition of a Digital Product Passport Ecosystem (DPPE): Worldviews, discrete capabilities, stakeholder requirements and concerns, Journal of Cleaner Production, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135538

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    Get involved in the DPP Project

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    We are developing a proof-of-concept technical demonstrator (and data model) for a UK Battery Passport System (Digital Product Passport) for EV and E-Mobility Batteries.

    We need your input in our research so that:

    • All stakeholders in a circular battery lifecycle can benefit from a standards-based open and / or interoperable record.
    • The battery passport proposal enhances opportunities for data innovations during first life applications and supports second-life applications and business models.
    • The proposal does not duplicate regulatory or compliance related processes; we want this system to make these processes easier!
    • The passport system is accessible and contains the information required for a variety of end-of-life applications.
    • The system can help to trace and monitor critical raw materials within the UK economy for urban mining applications
    • … and much more!

    Please get in touch with Dr Melanie King (m.r.n.king@lboro.ac.uk) and Dr Sara Mountney (s.mountney@shu.ac.uk) to find out more about the project and have your say.  In the coming months, we hope to engage with a range of stakeholders to support a collaborative design and development approach to building a technical proof of concept.

    Whether you can offer 5 minutes or a few hours, we’d love to get your input into our research!

    For more information about the research project, visit our Project Home Page. 

    Why Digital Product Passports for EV and E-Mobility Batteries?

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    Focusing on data innovation opportunities for Battery Passports for second-life applications

    Batteries are manufactured from (predominantly) finite material resources. To ensure the continued availability of critical raw materials, circular lifecycle strategies must be adopted, that manage the flow and availability of the battery product and its constituent parts and materials.  High-quality data is required, that can support production, use, re-use, second life, and end-of-life decision-making across the battery value chain.  

    Proposed by both the UK and the EU, battery passports/product passports are positioned as the mechanism for effective information exchange; a unique electronic record for each manufactured battery that contains all the information necessary to maximise extracted value from materials, and ensure the ongoing availability of those materials for future use.  Both the UK and the EU have started to define the types of product information that should be captured by product passports, but the current approach tends to focus on the outputs of a single enterprise – considering battery production and use as a wholly-linear activity. However, battery value chains are complex, networked arrangements of organisations and activities, with multiple re-use, second-life, and end-of-life circularity loops. Each of these loops can also be understood at multiple levels (e.g. re-use, second-life and end-of-life of the battery, re-use, second-life and end-of-life of battery components, and the re-use, second-life, and end-of-life of materials within the battery).  

    Adopting a system of systems approach, our research seeks to develop a proof of concept and technical demonstrator for an interoperable digital passport information system for the UK, one that addresses this inherent complexity and supports re-use, second life, and end-of-life applications across the value chain. Different loops enable different types of sustainable business models, enabled by different types of information. 

    We’d like to consult with stakeholders from across the battery lifecycle to understand the viability of these different circularity models, and the information you need (or already have) to make these loops a reality. Putting the multi-stakeholder concept at the forefront of the concept design and development, we hope to identify the challenges and solutions of multiple, interlinked DPPs, that hitherto have not been addressed or considered fully within product passport proposals.

    Please email me, Dr Melanie King, to have your say.

    Presentation at the Servitization Live Business Event

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    I was pleased to be one of the presenters at the Servitization Live Business Event held at the ICC Birmingham last week. The event was hosted by the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School. The aim of Servitization Live is to provide a platform for business executives and manufacturers from around the globe to see, hear and debate the latest advances and practices in servitization, including business models, digital technologies, organisational and societal innovations that are coming together to accelerate service transformation.

    I presented an overview of the ‘Digitally Advanced Services – Rail’ project I was PI for as part of the ‘showcase of leading industrial research’. You can view the ~10 min presentation here.

    Book Chapter: ‘Big Data in Insurance’ in the Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance

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    King, M.R.N., Timms, P.D. & Rubin, T. H., (2021). ‘Big Data in Insurance’, in Raghavendra, R., Wardrop, R. & Zingales, L. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.669-700.

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