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Albers, Albert; Peglow, Natalie; Spadinger, Markus

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One challenge in product development is the megatrend of product individualization in the automotive supplier industry. Requirements for a variant by the customer may differ from those by the provider wherefore conflicting goals can arise. To cope with variant requests in the quotation phase systematically, a method to evaluate variants is necessary. Based on evaluation criteria the requirements from the stakeholders are valued. While evaluating, an already criterion can have an impact on assessing the remaining criteria. For this reason, the present investigation emphases the interdependencies between the evaluation criteria in industrial practice representing interdependencies within goals, requirements and boundary conditions in an early stage of product development. Analysing decisive factors supports to identify subsequent activities in the development process of a variant. Experts of an international automotive supplier developed impact matrices and a scenario technique tool is used to interpret the matrices. In context of the model of PGE - Product Generation Engineering, findings derive to ensure a comprehensive basis for decision-making concerning a variant-request.

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Variant management, Decision making, Evaluation, Early design phases, Design practice