SUPPORTING INTERDISCIPLINARY SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT THROUGH INTEGRATED FUNCTION MODELLING

Industry is confronted with ever-changing and increasing demand of customers on global markets for integration of diverse functions into newly developed products and systems. As a consequence, companies increasingly often combine different engineering technologies into their products necessitating close collaboration of experts from various disciplines. New types of products, such as Product-Service Systems (PSS), which have become increasingly important in the recent past and combine (multi-disciplinary) products with associated services, extend interdisciplinary system development by including further disciplines. Problems in the (cross-disciplinary) exchange of information between the involved designers are considered one of the central risks posed to the success of interdisciplinary system development. Function modelling is expected to provide suitable means for the integration of different disciplines, as it addresses solution finding early in the design process and results in a first abstract representation of the system under consideration. However, a large variety of different and often incompatible function models can be found in the different disciplines, which hampers shared, cross-disciplinary function modelling.
The research project presented in this thesis provides comprehensive insights into central barriers and enablers for cross-disciplinary function modelling in the development of mechatronic systems and PSS. Conducted research comprises comprehensive literature reviews of diverse function models and function modelling approaches proposed in disciplinary and interdisciplinary design approaches. The derived insights are complemented by empirical studies in ten companies active in diverse market areas, such as machine design, automotive, aerospace, and consumer product development. The empirical studies provide compelling insights into the actual application of function modelling in different disciplines and design departments, as well as into specific needs and preferences of practicing designers from different disciplines. A central contribution resulting from this research is the ”Integrated Function Modelling framework”, which is intended to address the identified needs and provide practicing designers with a flexible and generic modelling approach supporting interdisciplinary conceptual design. The project is concluded with an initial evaluation of the developed framework in industry and academia.