Extending product modeling methods for integrated product development

Abstract

Despite great efforts within the modeling domain, the majority of methods often address the uncommon design situation of an original product development. However, studies illustrate that development tasks are predominantly related to redesigning, improving, and extending already existing products. Updated design requirements have then to be made explicit and mapped against the existing product architecture. In this paper, existing methods are adapted and extended through linking updated requirements to suitable product models. By combining several established modeling techniques, such as the DSM and PVM methods, in a presented Product Requirement Development model some of the individual drawbacks of each method could be overcome. Based on the UML standard, the model enables the representation of complex hierarchical relationships in a generic product model. At the same time it uses matrix-based models to link and evaluate updated requirements to several levels of the product architecture and to illustrate how these requirements have an upstream (towards stakeholders) and downstream (towards production) effect on the product architecture.<br/