Model-Based Product Line Engineering

Companies that develop complex software-intensive systems face the challenge of efficiently managing variant diversity and configurability, reducing costs, and ensuring fast time-to-market.

Systems and Software Product Line Engineering (PLE), according to ISO/IEC 26550, offers approaches and tools to overcome these challenges. PLE helps companies develop modularized product lines that are scalable for different markets, customers, or application scenarios without compromising quality. Industries such as automotive, Industry 4.0, healthcare, and aviation benefit particularly from these methods.

• Reduced development and maintenance costs: Reusing proven modules saves costs in architecture, testing, and validation.
• Mastering variant diversity and configurability: Model-based methods simplify the management of product variants and reduce errors.
• Faster time to market: Products and variants are realized more quickly because existing modules are used.
• Enhanced quality and standardization: Reused modules improve the quality and consistency of your systems.

We support you in all areas of model-based product line engineering and offer you customized services and tools that make your system development efficient and future-proof:

• Strategic planning & scoping: We work with you to develop a suitable product line and modular strategy to identify reuse potential in your portfolio and define a long-term development strategy.
• Modeling & architecture: We create feature models and modular system architectures that enable variability and reusability. This makes it easier to get started with feature-based product line engineering (in accordance with ISO/IEC 26580) and ensures you have a scalable and future-proof architecture.
• Tool-supported development: Using automated methods for variant analysis and configuration support, we optimize your modularity and increase efficiency in product development.

• VARIOUS (Mechanical Engineering):
  We have the product structures of the machine variants for a machine manufacturer. Reusable software modules were used for different model series, which reduced development time and costs while increasing quality.
• Feature and variability modeling (automotive industry):
  For an automotive OEM, we developed a viable approach to structuring feature models that can be applied across the portfolio.
• Modular system architectures – rail transport:
  We implemented a procedure and tool for optimizing modularity in system architecture for a train manufacturer and trained the employees.
• Configuration support – plant engineering:
  For a plant engineering company, we extracted the configuration options from the software and hardware components, documented them in a knowledge database, and then automated the configuration. This allowed valuable configuration knowledge to be secured and reduced the migration of existing configurations to new software versions from months to days.