Companies collect a large amount of operational data through purchase processes, in-house processes or customer databases. The most valuable data for technical products are, for example, construction plans as the basis for manufacturing in a large number of plants. Most companies do no longer manufacture their products themselves but sell and deliver the product data and construction plans through patents or license contracts. They focus themselves on product development and software support. Production can be outsourced to specialized companies. Therefore, products can be produced with substantially less capital investment. Flexibility in production is increased.
Manufacturing data and/or production plans are sold or provided to the end customer or user of a product. The production is done directly by the user, applying alternative technologies like 3D printers or additive manufacturing processes. In other words, they are built up layer by layer. This procedure is often applied for spare-parts instead delivering the parts via long-distances.