Re-use of Product Model through Life-cycle Stages

This paper discusses the requirements on product model presentations that are suitable for reuse. The aim is to define promising directions for future research by recognizing how the characteristics of reuse entities vary at the different stages of the product life-cycle. Reuse entities are roughly categorized into three types of presentation entities: macroscopic principles for the early stages of the life-cycle, product design patters for the intermediate stages, and microscopic features for detailed description at the late stages of the life-cycle. The idea of product design patterns is derived as an analogy to the design patterns utilized in software development, and a cut and paste based approach is shown as an application of the concept to product design. Product structuring is here considered through the data structuring entities that are needed as a suitable basis for a reusable, intelligible, and total product model.