Identifying Expedient Variations in PGE – Product Generation Engineering
DS 91: Proceedings of NordDesign 2018, Linköping, Sweden, 14th - 17th August 2018
Year: 2018
Editor: Ekströmer, Philip; Schütte, Simon and Ölvander, Johan
Author: Rapp, Simon; Moeser, Georg; Eichhorn, Philipp; Albers, Albert
Series: NordDESIGN
Institution: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
ISBN: 978-91-7685-185-2
Abstract
Product development can be described as PGE –Product Generation Engineering: A new product is developed based on at least one existing reference product. For the development of the new product generation subsystems from reference product are either carried over or used as the starting point for new development in the form of embodiment variation or principle variation. This contribution refers to development situations where the functional requirements for a new product generation are defined and potential reference products are known. Based on this a method is presented, which supports the choice of the finally used reference products and the identification of the required type of variation a) to fulfil the functional requirements and b) to limit the share of newly developed subsystems as an indiciator for the overall development cost. The method is developed and firstly applied in cooperation with an automotive supplier in the development of a multifunctional solenoid valve for the thermal management for electric vehicle. The basis for the presented approach are design structure matrices to depict on the one hand the relation between functional requirements and subsystems which are in the simplest case components. On the other hand they map the interrelations between the different subsystems. Such matrices can e.g. be derived from existing modeling approaches which link i.e. . geometry models in CAD with models of functional structures. The final result of the described method is displayed in an additional matrix which was specifically developed for the presented method. It includes for several potential reference products and all functional requirements of the new product variations of PGE which would be necessary to achieve the intended range of functions and resulting variation shares. The detailed analysis and implementation of the derived variations as well as the choice of one or more specific reference products have conclusively to be done by the developer himself. The method is helping in systematically creating multiple starting points for possible solutions as well as providing a decision support for this process
Keywords: Reference Product, Share of New Development, DSM, FAS4M