Knowledge visualization in product development using trade-off curves

In a complex product development environment designers and engineers demand simple but technically relevant methods to visualize knowledge. To address this issue, Lean Product and Process Development (LeanPPD) project, funded by the European Commission (NMP-2008–214090), development a new paradigm based on lean thinking, providing a knowledge-based environment to support engineering decision taking. The main objective of this paper is to present a guide on how to visually display product development knowledge using trade-off curves. This however requires the consideration of different knowledge life-cycle activities that have been defined as 1) Knowledge Identification, 2) Knowledge Capturing, 3) Knowledge Representation, and 4) Knowledge Re-Use. In addition this paper illustrates how trade-off curves can support the selection of potential design solutions for set based concurrent engineering. Finally, real case examples on trade-off curves are presented and findings are summarized in the conclusion.