Compatibility evaluation of future product concepts

Within an increasingly competitive environment companies face the challenge to continuously launch innovations which are accepted by the customer and at the same time manageable by the organization. In this context product planning takes in an important role, as demands and potentials concerning the future lifecycle of a product have to be acquired, anticipated and systematically analyzed in order to derive promising product concepts. To support this task, methods and tools to handle the planning relevant information are needed. Therefore this paper addresses a Multiple Domain Matrix (MDM) approach to enable a compatibility analysis of future solution elements which allows in consequence the identification and interpretation of goal conflicts concerning future products. Furthermore the respective MDM approach is also used to evaluate the compatibility of product concepts concerning multiple planning scenarios and also concerning multiple planning horizons.