Reference Products in PGE – Product Generation Engineering: Analyzing Challenges Based on the System Hierarchy

PGE – Product Generation Engineering describes that new products are developed based on reference products by three types of variation: carryover variation, embodiment variation and principle variation, where the two latter ones together form the share of new development. Existing approaches relate development risks to the share of new development and the organizational origin of the used reference products. However, several observations suggest that the level of the system structure, which is affected by the new development activities, is also an influencing factor. The contribution at hand aims at a more detailed investigation of this influence. For this purpose a case study is used, covering the first two generations of the dual mass flywheel. Based on this case study an existing approach for the estimation of development risk in PGE is extended to depict the system level, which is subject to new development activities, as an influencing factor. The extended framework is then applied on the development of the system of objectives for a new product generation of an automotive OEM. The framework is capable of displaying the development risks that had been encountered in the development of the first two DMF generations. However, further evaluation using more examples, stays necessary. The framework can serve as a basis for the early derivation of measures which have to be taken as next steps for the handling of identified risks.