Axiomatic product development lifecycle

In this research, different design methodologies and system/product development lifecycle models are studied. A new product development lifecycle model, the Axiomatic Product Development Lifecycle (APDL) model, with a robust structure to develop and capture the development lifecycle knowledge, is proposed and its use is discussed. The proposed approach is based on the AD method developed by Suh (1991); hence it inherits the benefits of applying the Axiomatic Design to product development. The Axiomatic Design method, in this research, is extended to cover the whole product development lifecycle including the test domain and new domain characteristic vectors are introduced such as the input constraint and system component vectors. The APDL model also provides more guidance than the AD method during the customer need mapping and during the design decomposition process.

The APDL model helps develop, capture and present both the big-picture and detail view of the product development knowledge, including design and requirement traceability knowledge. The objectives of APDL are to guide the designers, developers, and other members of a transdisciplinary product development team throughout the development effort as well as to help capture, maintain, and manage the product development knowledge.

The APDL model aims to improve the quality of the design, requirements management, change management, project management, and communication between stakeholders as well as to shorten the development time and reduce the cost. This research also provides suggestions and recommendations for utilizing different analysis and synthesis methodologies along with the proposed lifecycle model to improve the product quality and customer satisfaction.