A Criteria-based Measure of Similarity between Product Functionalities

Today‘s customers request product functions and not components. A specific, modular description of the product functions and how they are realized becomes widely accepted to track how a product function is realized and to support future development. This will result in an additional, modular product structure from a functional viewpoint that is orthogonal to the physical product structure. Because the extent of each functional module has to be defined according to some kind of similarity between product functionalities this article introduces a corresponding concept an presents an approach how it can be assessed based on defined criteria.