Fact Sheets

Options for your decision

Supporting information (reports, market research, competitor analysis)

Know-how of cross-functional teams of experts

Recommendations for decisions (what product to develop)

Recommendations for actions

Completeness of reasoning

Within planning phase

Need of decision support for or against a product

Need recommendation on steps to take (strategic or operational)

Information is incomplete, uncertain or ambiguous

Products to compare: Competitors products from the same category OR predecessor product

Attributes for comparison OR team of experts to determine attributes

Desired position of own product, e.g. best in segment

List of properties of compared products

Actual position of own product relative to competitors products

Realistic design goals for own product expressed by requirements

Planning phase or concept development phase

Need of design goals for own product to direct product development

Need to translate desired position of your product (with respect to competition) into technical requirements

Need for improvement of own products

Products to be analyzed

List of relevant product attributes

Team of experts

Detailed knowledge of competitors products (properties, functions, structure, manufacturing process, development process and costs)

List of additional requirements and useful suggestions for new developments or product improvements

Insight into the state-of-the-art

Concept development, System-Level Design and detail design phase

Need of approaches to achieve design goals

Vague idea of desired product

Use cases, characters, motives and known needs

Possibly team of experts

Improved understanding of relevant needs and user’s perspective

implicit or explicit formulation of requirements

Typically within planning and concept development phase

Need to view the system through the user’s eyes

Need for requirements

Design goals or superior requirements

Structured, complete list of requirements

Established in early stages for definition of design goal and formulation of component requirements

In later stages for component and verification

To establish an agreement between stakeholders

Understanding of customers needs and expectations

Optional: data about own and competitors products

Interdisciplinary team of experts (development, marketing, procurement, controlling, product manager)

List of important technical attributes

Approximate description of the relation between customer value and technical attributes

Requirements on technical attributes

Document for decision support and effective interdisciplinary communication

Typically in early design stages, but can be applied in all phases of product development

Need for technical requirements

Applicable products and processes

Design goal

Requirements

Model of important functions that are necessary to reach the design goal

Arrangement of modules and interfaces

Early stages of product development process

Development of a product that acts on another object e.g. by processing, transporting

Design goal / requirements / problem formulation

Optional: existing function models or product structure

Model or relevant functions to be implemented to reach design goal (useful/harmful)

Arrangement of modules and interfaces

Early stages of product development process (Concept Development and System-Level Design)

Need of (re-)structuring a problem without focusing on a concrete solution by

• Either: concretizing an abstract problem

• Or: Abstracting a concrete solution to identify an alternative solution

Elements from one domain (e.g. components, roles, stakeholders, process steps, …)

Understanding of the relations between the elements

Optional: a graph

Matrix with elements and relations —> Input for further analysis (clustering, sequencing)

Visualization of system connectivity, including type (and optionally intensity) of interaction

Presence of many interacting or connected elements, related to a product, organization, or process with respect

Preparation for further analysis steps: clustering / sequencing

Concept Development, System-Level-Design and Detail Design

Elements from different domains (e.g. components-functions, persons-components, person-topics)

Relations between the elements

Optional: a graph

Overview over connectivity

Tool for mapping in DSM analysis

Need to understand connectivity between different domains in a complex system

Concept Development, System-Level-Design and Detail Design

Unstructured, static DSM

Clustering goal (e.g. number of clusters, size of clusters, or constraint on relations outside a cluster)

Clusters

General need of structure in a large collection of elements and their relations (e.g. components or team members)

Need to group elements

Concept Development, System-Level-Design and Detail Design

Unstructured, temporal DSM Matrix

Indication of existence of feedback loops

Improved process sequence (Matrix alignment with all dependencies at one side of the diagonal means a process without any iteration steps)

Process planning

Need to optimize processes with

• Large feedback loops

• Many feedback loops

Scope of analysis expressed by

• (1) requirements and/or quantities of interests and/or

• (2) design variables involved

Rough qualitative understanding of dependencies

Dependency structure of attributes

Building plan for requirement development

Candidates of causes of a problem

Presence of many attributes and dependencies

Need to structure a problem and decompose it into sub-problems

Organize interfaces between several disciplines

Preparation for requirement formulation

Planning, Concept Development, System-Level Design and Detail Design

List of functions and/or requirements

Optional: initial ideas for partial solutions

Chart of partial solutions ordered by associated functions and relevance

One or more concepts

Need to define a concept and systematically explore many options

Concept Development, System-Level Design, Detail Design

Quantitative model y_j = f(x_i)

Interval-based or one-sided requirements on y_j

Interval-based or one-sided requirements on x_i

In early stages of development to explore design space (Concept Development, System-Level Design and Detail Design)

When design goals or system requirements are to be broken down into component requirements to distribute or integrate development work

Need for precise requirements at stakeholder interfaces

Initial list of design variables

Initial list of quantities of interests

List of all considered design

List of all considered QoIs

Design variants, including the best design

Seeking a solution

Concept is completed

Design variables (DVs) and quantities of interest (QoI) are defined (however not their values)

Ideas, hypotheses

Possibly stakeholder output

Confirmation / rejection

New ideas

Need to explore, evaluate, communicate a solution idea

Throughout the development process (till Production Approval)

Information related to system structure and functions

Information to assess severity/occurrence/detection

Optional: Risk factor maps

Documentation of estimated possible failure chains with associated risk priority number (only single-factor cause view)

List of action items for improvement

Many interacting components —> high complexity

New or changed product, technology, material, or process

Risk needs to be minimized (e.g., for safety-related products)

Solution alternatives

Criteria / requirements / preferences

Ranking of solution alternatives according to their utility value

Documentation of decision made

Need to choose from several alternatives

Several assessment criteria relevant

Solution alternatives

Criteria / requirements / preferences

Information to establish rating functions

Ranking of solution alternatives according to their utility value

Documentation of decision made

Need to choose from several alternatives

Several assessment criteria relevant

Detailed justification necessary

Non-linear rating necessary