A close look on product flexibility

Different technical products are analysed in order to derive design principles and/or guidelines to support the development of flexible products. Thereby it is differed between products that can easily be adapted in case of external changes, namely flexible products, and products that do not have to be changed in case of external products, namely robust products. The analysis led to four design principles explicitly supporting the development of flexible products and three aiming at the development of robust products. These principles are formalized in guidelines. Moreover a plain model for understanding product flexibility is derived for the product analysis.