Hybrid development of physical products based on systems engineering and design thinking : towards a new process model

Abstract

Hybrid process models combine elements of agile approaches with stage-gate processes from systems engineering to address the specific challenges of developing physical products. However, there is currently no established hybrid product development process model that has been widely adopted in the industrial practice of new product development (NPD). The aim of this paper is to develop a hybrid product development process model that has a high practical suitability for the development of physical products. Our paper begins by defining the fundamental principle of agile development with regard to engineering design methodology. Subsequently, we analyse Stanford's hybrid ME310 process model's practical suitability for the development of physical products, both theoretically and empirically. Based on the process model's limitations identified in these analyses, we create a new hybrid process model called 'Systematic Engineering-Design-Thinking' (SEDT), which builds on the ME310 process model but integrates essential methods from systems engineering to improve solution space exploration.