Software-Defined Product Features: Reduktion physischer Varianz durch Virtualisierung

Customer demands force many manufacturing companies to offer individualized products in order to remain competitive. This has far-reaching and costly effects on almost every area of the product life cycle, from the development of the product, the procurement and storage of materials and individual parts, to manufacture of the products. Software-Defined Product Features (SDPF) is a product development approach that creates opportunities to realize previously physically executed product features and functions using software, thereby reducing the complexity and costs of entire product families. The following article defines the term „Software-Defined Product Features“ and puts it into the broader context of SDx (Software-Defined Anything) and especially SDM (Software-Defined Manufacturing). Subsequently, the state of research regarding a new method is presented, which should enable a potential analysis for the use of SDPF on different products and provide recommendations for action for their further development.