Improving Lifecycle Visibility of Household Appliances: : A QR-Based Approach to Sustainable Decision-Making in Property Management

Sammanfattning

This study investigates how information management and traceability of household appliances within property management can be improved to support more sustainable and informed decision-making. In many real estate organizations, limited access to structured lifecycle information regarding appliances, such as age, condition, maintenance history, and warranty status, leads to uncertainty in maintenance and renovation processes. As a result, functional appliances may be replaced prematurely, leading to unnecessary costs and environmental impact. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study in collaboration with the company Fixkod, a technology company specializing in digital traceability solutions for property management. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured and open interviews with stakeholders within the real estate and related sectors, including operational management and technology-oriented roles. To further explore potential solutions to the identified findings, a QR-based traceability prototype was developed using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) - supported development tool. The prototype was iteratively refined based on empirical findings and evaluated through follow-up feedback interviews. The findings indicate that current asset-related information is often fragmented, difficult to access, and insufficiently integrated into existing workflows. This contributes to reactive and risk-minimizing decision-making, limited forecasting capabilities, and challenges in supporting circular asset management practices such as repair and reuse. Organizational barriers, including resistance to change, system fragmentation, and operational access limitations, further complicate lifecycle management processes. The developed prototype illustrates how improved traceability and centralized information management could support more informed decision-making by increasing visibility of appliance lifecycle data, maintenance history, reuse status, and forecasting information. The study further highlights how digital traceability systems may support circular resource utilization by improving coordination of reuse activities, enabling more proactive maintenance planning, and reducing uncertainty in operational processes. The study contributes to research within Supply Chain Management (SCM) by extending existing knowledge on traceability, visibility, and information management into an internal property management context characterized by distributed and access-constrained assets. Furthermore, it demonstrates how digital lifecycle tracking systems may support sustainable asset management and long-term resource efficiency within the real estate sector