Exploitation method for functional product requirements - An integrated function oriented approach

The development of mechatronic products - in particular across the domain borders - is challenging. Possible interdisciplinary improvements are neglected and design inconsistencies are neither prevented nor identified efficiently. Moreover, the complexity of mechatronic products is growing continuously due to an ongoing impact of software on product functions. In addition, the quality of a product is often judged by the quality of its functions. Thus it becomes hard to track the functions of a specific product and how they are realized and the quality of the product functions cannot be assured. Daimler is facing this problem by extending the traditional requirement list with functional requirements in the early design stages. This function oriented product description (FOPD) is leading to a mature product specification, because it is able to grow and adapt while designing the current mechatronic product and the following product generations of one product family. This work presents a novel approach to gain a benefit directly from the FOPD for the succeeding design process. Therefore the authors provide directions for deriving the so-called extended function structure (EFS) from a FOPD. The EFS is enhancing the traditional function structure by considering sensors, actors and the control logic explicitly. This approach will be exemplified in a case study.