Product, process and methodology systematization to handle structural and computational complexity in product realization

Abstract This paper establishes a concept for Product, Process, and Methodology (PPM) systematization to handle both structural complexity (often referred as hard complexity) and computational complexity (also referred as soft complexity) in product realization. A systematization methodology is proposed to handle both these complexities through a four‐stage process: Planning, Systematization, Solution and Unification. Planningis the first stage where system specification is defined. Systematization is a systematic decomposition of the problem into a set of discrete sub‐problems. There are three kinds of systematization that can be employed in product realization: Methodology systematization, Product systematization and Process systematization. During the Solution stage, a number of computational alternatives, solution strategies or topological options for handling soft complexity are obtained for each sub‐problem, and the best solution is selected. Unification is an aggregation or a reconstruction of an overall product solution from various alternative solutions to the sub‐problems. A branching and bounding methodology has been employed here first to branch the complex product and process into ‘sub‐domains’ and ‘loops’ and later bound these loops back into sub‐domains and then further bound those sub‐domains back into an integrated product development system. The branching and bounding methodology provides the product development teams the ability to refine successively the ‘goodness or fitness’ of a baseline product concept as teams proceed from one nested loop to another. PPM systematization is a convenient way of organizing the process necessary for a new product realization or for developing future product upgrades. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.