Customer oriented concept development in mechatronic product design

Especially in early product design stages, customer orientation is mandatory for product success. A method aiming at this goal is the QFD approach, which, however, does not focus on conceptual design, at least not to the desired extent. Hence, a new approach, namely the House of Concepts (HoC) is introduced offering assistance in enhanced customer orientation particularly during conceptual design, and supporting systematic concept development on different levels of abstraction. Thus, the HoC approach contributes to position products exactly in the targeted market segments.