Extended target weighing approach (ETWA): Impact and risk analysis of lightweight concepts in the product-production system-co-design

Lightweight design in interconnected systems becomes more and more complex as the interdependencies cannot be overseen by the product developer. Varying one component might not only influence the interfaces to other components but also the underlying production systems. Therefore, this contribution focuses on the product/production interdependencies and how they can be supported within lightweight design. Based on a functional description of the product it is possible to derive new lightweight design solutions and also to evaluate the change propagation in the production system. For this, a method for the impact and risk analysis is integrated in the lightweight design method Extended Target Weighing Approach (ETWA). By doing so, a risk value for the adapted production system can be calculated and different design concepts can be compared. The application of the developed method on a simplified use-case shows great potentials when evaluating the impact of a newly developed lightweight design solution on an already existing production system supporting the product development in decision making.