Developing an Ontology for User and Customer Scenarios to Support Model-Based Cross-Generational Modelling of Products and Production Systems in Circular Economy

Modern product development faces the challenge of developing value creation strategies that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. The circular economy provides a promising approach by decoupling resource consumption from economic growth through regenerative product life cycles that potentially maximize value retention. Model-Based Systems Engineering provides a formal, adaptable approach to managing this complexity by enabling holistic, interdisciplinary representations over the entire product lifecycle. To support model-based cross-generational modelling of circular products and production systems, a dedicated ontology is essential. Yet, within the power tools domain, there is still no systematic definition of user and customer scenarios to derive requirements for product and production system development. This work addresses this gap by adapting ontologies from different domains, such as autonomous driving, to model user and customer scenarios in the power tools domain, using angle grinders as a use case. Additionally, literature analysis, interviews, and surveys were conducted to identify a possible definition of user and customer scenarios and cluster elements for the ontology. Future work focuses on automating the generation of scenarios for requirement identification and the integration of the ontologies into the system model for the perpetual innovative product, creating a framework that supports model-based execution.