Towards agile development of physical products a startup case study

Abstract

Changes in product development processes can occur for many reasons, some of which are difficult to predict or anticipate [1]. They are caused externally (e.g. change in customer needs) or internally (e.g. product complexity). This leads to a limited effectiveness of traditional (product-) developments methods and requires the incorporation of new ones. One of the main strategies handling uncertainty is to accomplish the challenge of being agile that goes hand in hand with ever-present change [2]. Especially, multiple-discipline mechatronic engineering needs to cope with a high level of uncertainty and complexity. This paper aims to address this challenges by examining mechatronic product development within a start-up, that is specialized on new product development and a flexible cooperation. It proposes a holistic methodology that integrates the perspectives of agile development, product architecture development and engineering change management. The goal of the project presented as a case study in this paper was to develop a machine that automatically produces a special sort of Omani bread on demand for household and small restaurant usage.