Systems Thinking in the Product Development Process 4.0

This chapter describes the obstacles many companies face on their way to implementing a PDP 4.0 – a product development process in the era of digitisation and Industry 4.0. The chapter highlights real-life experiences gained from providing consulting support for product development departments at German SMEs. Systems thinking contributes a great deal towards resolving the interdisciplinary issues that product developers face by making sure that a range of perspectives is taken into account before an during the process. Each challenge described is followed by a few sample questions, enabling readers to tackle these challenges using systems thinking. In this way, the chapter helps enhance readers’ understanding of the topic, without the need to study the theory of systems thinking in greater depth. The discussion focuses on stage two of the PDP – the actual product development –, as the perspectives and approaches from systems thinking are particularly relevant as this stage. The chapter does not explicitly deal with what are usually referred to as stages one and three of the process, the generation of product ideas (1) and production and sales (3), although some of the “sample questions for systems thinking” listed may be helpful there as well.