TABLE OF CONTENTS A product model supports the the specification process for products in sales, design and methods engineering. The specification process denotes the part of the engineering system in which the specifications for the customised product variants are created, as illustrated in Figure 1.
The activities in the specification process includes an analysis of the customer's needs, design and specification of a product which fulfill the customer's needs and specification of e.g. product manufacture, transportation, erection on site and service (specification of the product's life cycle properties). The activities in the specification process are characterised by having a relatively well-defined space of (maybe complex) solutions as a contrast to product development, which is a more creative process.
Typical goals for the specification process are the ability to find an optimal solution according to the customer's needs, high quality of the specifications, short lead time and a high productivity of the work carried out. Typical critical goals for the development process are to derive new original concepts of product design with improved functionality and life cycle properties, and to reduce time to market for the new product designs. The diversification of tasks and goals in the specification and development processes leads to a separation of the two processes as suggested in Figure 1 above.
This article focuses on the opportunities provided in supporting the specification process...
