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a practice-oriented approach for an accelerated product development and product design process for mechatronic systems is presented. The handling of complex and versatile product data to perform this process is shown in the area of electrical drives and actuators in cars. It is discussed, how the coordination of all the necessary disciplines as development, design, testing field, specification and release management should be software supported and PDM integrated. The advantages and benefits of the presented methods are shown on particular examples. The necessary software modules are introduced, showing that the realized solution gives both opportunities - the integration into a PDM backbone and at the same time an independent communication within department and/or company. The practical way, to realize the expert-specific needs of the development department, which is not possible with a general PDM system is pointed out.

In this contribution functional safety is discussed from a car manufacturer's point of view. Typical elements of a safety standard concerning safety activities during the product development process are described as well as management and other supporting processes. Emphasis is laid on the aspect of risk assessment and the determination of safety classes. Experiences with methods for safety analysis like FTA or FMEA are discussed and pros and cons of quantitative safety assessment are argued.

System requirements are classified as FRs (Functional Requirements) and NFRs (Non-Functional Requirements) [1]. FRs focus on system goals. NFRs put constraints on the system. NFRs are often expressed in the form of properties that a system must fulfill in the process of realization of FRs. NFRs are usually categorized under headers such as performance, reliability, quality, security, maintainability without any mechanism to associate with the corresponding FRs in system architecture. This leads to challenges in further decomposition of requirements at subsystem levels. The paper proposes an approach for MBSE where NFRs can be identified and represented in a layered system architecture design. The proposed approach bifurcates NFRs to derive functions using SysML (extension to UML) to provide a functional or structural solution. The derived functions from NFRs are then either linked with an existing function or a new function is created in architecture design.

The environmental impact of automobiles and components is of growing importance both in the public discussion and in the complex decision finding process for future car concepts. Especially more and more conflicts of objectives occur between technical, economical, ecological and political requirements. For a lasting improvement of environmental compatibility and recyclability as an element of the so-called „sustainable development” of automobiles and components, BMW is the first carmaker which has developed quantitative management tools /1, 2/. These component related instruments enable designers in the product development phase to evaluate different component variations practice-oriented and with an ecological perspective in mind. In this endeavor, BMW is placing its bets on „intelligent lightweight construction”, i. e., the ecologically-economically best component solution.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the application of the stage-gates method (phase review) as a mechanism for integration and management between the product development process (PDP) and manufacturing, which is the first customer of the development teams. Using the stage-gates method, it is possible to ensure that manufacturing constraints and capabilities are incorporated and managed during the PDP. With the results obtained in the case study, it suggests that the stage-gates is a mechanism that, properly systematized, can contribute to greater efficiency of the PDP through the integration of manufacturing in the early stages of development.