The Influence of Prosumers on the Creation and the Process of Intelligent Products Flow

A growing number of intelligent products available in the market makes them pay attention. The areas of use of intelligent products are wide, they can include production processes, supply chains, asset management and product life cycle management as well as direct products offered to final customers. In production activities, intelligent products are to streamline production planning and control, allow products to be tailored to individual needs, and make the choice between the variants made more effective. In intelligent supply chains it is possible to improve the efficiency of sending and receiving goods, improving the control and safety of loads, and implementing environmentally-friendly rationalization. Final customers expect more intelligent comfort, ease of use, higher level of environmental performance, time savings, higher efficiency and performance, safe use and reliability from intelligent products. However, despite many potential benefits offered to users, intelligent products are a major challenge for manufacturers. The aim of the article was to present the role that prosumers play in the process of creating and implementing intelligent products and to indicate the conditions of this process. For this purpose the basic assumptions of the concept of intelligent products and the phenomenon of prosumption are presented. The model of the process of creating intelligent products was also proposed, taking into account the interaction between prosumers and enterprises. The attention is paid to the specificity and contribution of startups to the process of generating innovations, including intelligent products. In the final part, the thread of negative consequences of prosumption and the implementation of intelligent products, which are less frequently discussed in the literature, was featured.