ECLASS and PIM: classes, properties and release migrations

What is ECLASS and who governs it?

ECLASS is a cross-industry classification and property standard for products and services, maintained by the association ECLASS e.V. ECLASS describes itself as the only worldwide ISO/IEC-compliant data standard for products and services. The standard is released once a year, and each release is sold as a licence covering all available languages.

The current release is ECLASS 16.0, published on 27 November 2025. ECLASS 16.0 incorporated over 155,000 change requests and added 995 classes, 1,253 properties, 985 values and 126 value lists. ECLASS 16.0 has 29 fully translated and 2 partially translated language versions. ECLASS e.V. states there are no changes to the data model or XML schema in 16.0.

ECLASS 17.0 entered alpha on 29 June 2026 and is planned for the end of November 2026. ECLASS e.V. received over 100,000 initial change requests for 17.0 by 30 April 2026, including a new segment 52 for waste and processing residue. This standard is one of seven covered in the product data standards overview, and it drives several requirements in PIM by industry.

Which industries use ECLASS?

ECLASS spans sectors from construction and logistics to laboratory technology, medicine, automotive and office supplies, plus services. The 17.0 work programme shows the breadth. Segment 44 for automotive engineering and vehicle components received over 5,000 change requests. Segment 28 for complete vehicles is being restructured with around 500 new classes, and robotics classes are being reworked.

In PIMvendors selections, ECLASS is decisive in three situations:

• Component and machine builders that sell to large industrial buyers whose procurement systems require ECLASS-classified catalogues.
• Manufacturers working on the Asset Administration Shell, where ECLASS e.V. positions ECLASS properties as the reference for interoperable AAS submodels.
• Manufacturers preparing sustainability data. ECLASS 16.0 extended the material declaration aspect to all classification classes except services and revalidated its product and environmental footprint structures under ISO 14044.

The third point links ECLASS to the Digital Product Passport. A PIM that already holds ECLASS properties for materials and footprints has a head start on passport data, provided the PIM keeps ECLASS identifiers intact.

What does ECLASS mean for the PIM data model?

ECLASS adds a property dictionary on top of a class hierarchy, and the PIM must store both. Each ECLASS release ships in two formats, and the format determines the data model depth a PIM needs:

The class codes in ECLASS 16.0 cover classification classes, aspects, blocks and application classes. A PIM limited to flat attributes can hold ECLASS BASIC but struggles with ADVANCED structures such as a material declaration with repeated substance entries.

Identifiers are the second requirement. ECLASS properties carry unique identifiers independent of language. The PIM must store those identifiers next to labels and units, or an export to a customer platform loses the link to the standard. ECLASS also publishes machine-readable update files with each release, which ECLASS e.V. says enable automatic migrations. A PIM that ignores those files turns every annual release into a manual project.

What should you test in a PIM demo for ECLASS?

Test ECLASS on your own products and on a release migration. PIMvendors' scenario method uses buyer sample data and live execution. For ECLASS, run five scenarios:

1. Import ECLASS 16.0 BASIC for the segments you sell in, and show classes, properties, units and value lists with their identifiers.
2. Classify 20 sample products in ECLASS and ETIM in parallel, on one set of attribute values, and show where the two models differ.
3. Model one ADVANCED structure from your range, such as a material declaration with repeating entries, and export it.
4. Migrate the sample from ECLASS 15.0 to 16.0 using the release update files, and show which changes the PIM applies automatically and which it flags.
5. Export an ECLASS-classified catalogue in the format your largest customer requests, such as BMEcat with the ECLASS guideline, and validate it.

Record the number of manual steps per scenario and who performed them. The Demo Theatre scenario library holds the script format, and the PIM demo scorecard holds the scoring grid.

Common ECLASS pitfalls in PIM selections

The most expensive ECLASS mistake is choosing a release once and never planning the next one. In PIMvendors selections, five pitfalls recur:

• Release lock-in: the PIM holds one ECLASS release while customers request another. Without parallel releases or a migration path, the team maintains export mappings by hand.
• Flat modelling of ADVANCED content: material declarations end up in free-text fields, which no customer system can read.
• Lost identifiers: the PIM stores ECLASS labels and drops property identifiers, so exports cannot be validated.
• Licence ambiguity: nobody checks whether the company, the vendor or the partner licenses ECLASS content, and the question surfaces after contract signature.
• ECLASS treated as a replacement for ETIM: technical wholesalers still expect ETIM, so component makers selling through wholesale need both.

ECLASS e.V. labels about 23,300 definitions in release 16.0 as machine-generated by an AI model. That transparency is useful: teams can filter those definitions for review before relying on them in customer-facing content.

Where ECLASS shows up across industries

ECLASS requirements appear on three industry pages in this hub:

• PIM for industrial manufacturing: ECLASS for procurement catalogues and Asset Administration Shell data.
• PIM for wholesale distribution: ECLASS next to ETIM and UNSPSC for customers with different procurement systems.
• PIM for automotive aftermarket: ECLASS vehicle and component segments, which are being reworked in release 17.0.

ECLASS rarely travels alone. ETIM covers technical wholesale with a flatter model. BMEcat is the most common catalogue format for ECLASS data, and ECLASS e.V. publishes BMEcat guidelines for releases 1.2, 2005 and 2005.1. UNSPSC is the procurement code many international buyers still request. Plan all four into the data model before the first demo. In PIMvendors selections, the classification list per customer and channel is a one-page document, agreed before the RFP is sent. That page then decides which vendors stay on the longlist.

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