Product Models and Reusability

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This paper describes and explains the rationale behind the product model that is employed in the configuration design tool SyDeR (System Design for Reusability, [SDR98]). its name indicates, SyDeR stresses the reuse of system designs in later design projects. The field where SyDeR is applied is configuration design lbr products for which there is not a complete, fixed set of components, but rather a set of previous designs from which one can be chosen to be reused and/or adapted to the current configuration design problem. This sub-field of configuration design is of major economic importance, as e.g., the design of railway rolling stock or trucks fall into this category.