Assessing the Influence of Digital Innovations on the Organizational Design of Product Family Generations

Abstract

The paper discusses increasing demands on product architecture and the resulting requirements and implications for organizational structure. Due to the increasing requirements, the product architecture is increasingly developing into a complex construct in which transparency must be increased in order to be able to continue to develop products effectively. The approach of this paper is, based on the method of Design for Variety a matrix-based modularization with the DSM and its extension to a cross-discipline multi-domain matrix to establish a reference to the organizational structure and to align it in a value-added way to a good product architecture. This is done by an exemplary Investigation of the product family generation of a vacuum robot.