SPECIFICATION RISK ANALYSIS: AVOIDING PRODUCT PERFORMANCE DEVIATIONS THROUGH AN FMEA-BASED METHOD

Traditionally, the trade-off between time, cost and quality has been considered as a dilemma in product development [LINDEMANN 2006A]. The received opinion was that no optimal results regarding all three dimensions could be achieved at one point. The tension between time and quality was seen, in simple terms, as the following: the more time spent, the better product quality can be achieved. However, a conflictive goal is to develop a product within little time in order to minimize the time to market. And, of course, to minimize costs. The third dimension costs adds a further tension to this trade-off. Adding resources (e.g. financial means or manpower) to the development process may reduce the
development time and may help to achieve better quality, but as a consequence development costs increase. The interdependence between the three dimensions has become known as the dilemma in product development. In the past, companies sought to achieve the right tradeoff in order to maximize their profits.