A Crucial Misconception in the Manufacturing Industry

The European manufacturing industry is at a tipping point of structural change. Products are becoming software-driven, connected, and continuously updated. At the same time, expectations regarding safety, cybersecurity, traceability, and digital documentation are rising. Most organizations recognize the need to meet new requirements but lack one fundamental insight: the problem lies not in the rules but in how responsibility is organized.

Where traditional product lifecycle models operate within defined steps and functions, modern regulations work across those departments. Safety, product updates, cybersecurity, and documentation must move in sync. And this is precisely where it goes wrong.

Many manufacturing companies are organized in such a way that safety files, CE documentation, digital manuals, software changes, and cybersecurity checks all fall into different corners of the organization. R&D manages technical risks. Software teams patch and release. Quality manages compliance. Service adjusts instructions. IT handles cybersecurity.

Logically on paper. Practically an invisible showstopper.

Once products receive frequent software and safety updates, a structural problem arises: documents lag behind product changes, security measures are not demonstrable, and technical files no longer align with releases. Teams work in silos, and no one sees the whole picture.

The urgent reality is that this is no longer sustainable. Upcoming adjustments in European legislation compel companies to abandon this fragmented approach. While departments currently manage their own parts, new laws require an integrated, lifecycle-wide way of working where safety, cybersecurity, and documentation are organized and managed in sync.

In parallel, the EU Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 will be applicable from January 20, 2027. This introduces stricter requirements for digital documentation, software/AI-related safety features, and cybersecurity. Without an integrated, lifecycle-wide operational model, it will not be possible to meet these data-driven requirements.

In short: the way many organizations are currently structured makes it impossible to operate in a compliant, safe, and innovative manner tomorrow.

For leaders responsible for growth, risk management, and innovation, fragmented responsibility is far from a detail. It affects three strategic axes simultaneously:

Those working fragmentally today will be slower, more costly, and less competitive tomorrow.

In a world of connected and software-driven products, every change has a digital shadow:

If these updates do not run in sync, a seemingly small error can quickly escalate into a much larger issue. Product launches slow down, audits fail, and teams become overwhelmed by corrective work.

Progressive manufacturing companies are making a strategic shift. They are organizing safety, cybersecurity, documentation, and lifecycle information into one integrated operational model.

This model includes:

The outcome is an information architecture that fits modern product development: fast, traceable, audit-ready, scalable, and future-proof.

Companies that take this step clearly realize:

But above all, they let go of the crucial misconception that compliance and safety are "someone else's department."

In reality, they form the foundation upon which digital product lifecycle, cybersecurity, and innovation rest.

If you want to strategically work on your information architecture, partnering with someone with proven experience in such projects is a smart move. Not because it can't be done without a partner, but because it helps you organize the project faster, more efficiently, and in a future-proof manner.

Etteplan is eager to be that partner for your organization. With our experience in engineering, data quality, and regulatory requirements, we bring exactly the knowledge needed to establish a robust and scalable framework. At the same time, input from your own experts is essential to shape the processes in a way that fits your daily practice.

This is how we build together: your domain knowledge and daily reality combined with our structure, methodology, and technical expertise. Always with a long-term perspective, ensuring that the framework not only works now but also adapts to future demands.