Requirements act as a limitation of the solution space, which represents the stakeholders’ needs and guides the whole product development process. Therefore, forgotten requirements can lead to wrong decisions when using them as a basis for decision-making. This contribution introduces a novel approach to link the requirement and evaluation criteria models to address this problem. For setting up those criteria consistently, the requirements are classified using natural language processing and derived by a ruleset based on a developed mapping between requirement classes and criteria types.

Considering variations is essential for the development of robust products, but the applicability of existing robust design approaches in early stages is challenging due to the lack of product information and high levels of abstraction. To overcome this, a combined model is presented, which enables a holistic robustness evaluation in a linked approach. This approach uses the contact and channel approach to identify the relations between embodiment and functions as well as the robustness evaluation based on tolerance graphs. The combined model is implemented with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and applied to a coining machine use case. An initial assessment of the model combination and a proposal for a methodically supported workflow for the holistic robustness evaluation is given.

This paper presents a holistic approach to structure and classify requirements of the product life cycle systematically and make them accessible for the evaluation process. In a first analysis step, process models of selected literature are analyzed regarding classification and structuring of requirements as well as their derivation into evaluation criteria. In a subsequent synthesis step, the classification system is developed with a consistent consideration of the multicriteria evaluation process. This approach therefore contributes to raise the awareness of an appropriate handling of requirements and to minimize forgotten requirements as well as evaluation criteria. As a result, costly iterations in the development process can be reduced sustainably by using the proposed approach.

The development of complex technical systems is characterized by a large number of system elements as well as their interactions. With regard to requirements management, many requirements have to be considered, which can have different relations to each other. If these requirements are used as basis for criteria in the decision making process, these relations must also be considered in the multi-criteria evaluation of product alternatives. Therefore, a computer-aided approach is presented in this paper, which allows the systematic modeling of requirement interactions focusing on multi-criteria decision making. For this purpose, basic relation types are identified, which are used to model submatrices in order to derive the Requirement Relation Matrix (RRM). Matrix-based as well as graph-based visualization methods are used for the RRM in order to improve the alternatives with the knowledge about the relational linkage. In addition, the effects of changes in requirements can be transferred to the decision making process. The approach is exemplarily applied to the extension of a test laboratory by a test bench.

Variation management is a responsible task for product developers, which have to balance the ever-increasing quality demands and cost pressures, while considering the product design as well as the manufacturing and assembly process. These aspects have a direct impact on its subsequent success in the market. Therefore, a large number of different activities of variation management are necessary. In this area, a wide variety of mostly document-centered methods support product developers, which have individual interfaces. Thus, it is currently not possible to map the entire variation management process in a single model. Especially with regard to the increasing availability of large amounts of data, the potential of an integrated variation management cannot be exploited efficiently. For this reason, this paper presents a novel model-based approach for the development of a combined system and tolerancing model. This model contains the processes and activities of integrated variation management and links them with further system models and the corresponding data. The presented approach is a superordinate model for variation management as well as its processes and provides the modeling of individual views of different stakeholders. In addition, process- and program-specific solutions can be integrated into the model, which enables a cross-linking of the data beyond their interfaces. In this paper, the approach is realized using the systems modeling language (SysML).