Verifying the Test Methods and Certification Criteria for New Technological Convergence Products: Using Living Labs as a Methodology

Abstract

The recent industrial transformation driven by industry 4.0 and related emerging technologies, such as big data and Internet of Things (IoT), have exerted significant impacts on the key aspects of new product development. As an example, new smart products are being developed in various ways through technological convergence. The convergence-oriented development of new products, however, may increase the difficulty of getting tested and certified due to the incompatibility with the existing certification standards. Additionally, it may take several years to develop and verify new standards, possibly delaying the product launch. To deal with this trouble, this study proposes an interesting idea that living labs can be effectively used in verifying the test methods and certification criteria for new technological convergence products (NCPs). Specifically, this study develops a framework for analyzing the real-use environment of NCPs and deriving the primary living lab components that should be implemented for verification purposes. The presented framework is then applied to real NCP cases to check its validity. To the best of my knowledge, this study is among the first elaborating the idea of using living labs as the methodology for verifying the test methods and certification criteria for NCPs. The specific methods developed in this study can be used as important guidelines that practitioners can follow step by step. Theoretically, this study also has significant implications for living lab literature and context-related research.