Towards a constitutive foundation for the creation of a scientific formalism for product realization

History shows that companies that survive in a severe competitive climate are those that are highly adaptable to market and technological changes. Product development is one of the key activities that assure company survival by renewal of its offer to its customers. A scientific formalism has to be created to fulfill two purposes: 1) to ensure that the design and development of a product is successful (the final product must fulfill all the needs with the constraints of costs, delays and resources), and 2) to integrate market and technological changes that will permit the company to survive. In this paper, eight important issues concerning a scientific formalism of product realization are presented. Concerning the basic design operations: research must explore more deeply the cognitive aspects of designing, especially at the level of embodiment and detail design, as well as collaborative design. There is a need of formalization and interplay between the different product parameters (customer needs, product specifications, product subsystem parameters). The classic project management—control of the project and coordination between project members—has to be rethought for product development and design. Finally, this formalism must permit creativity in design, which is the warrant of the evolution of the products and in this way, the company