When using product-service systems as a business model, new product development challenges and opportunities arise. Due to the possibility of customizing the product fleet depending on the user-scenarios, more product variants are possible and often necessary. Therefore, this paper presents an approach for the automated functionality and design optimization for user scenario specific use cases. The approach combines an optimization framework with a functional simulation model and a generative design approach CAD model. This results in a robust and simultaneously flexible design environment.

Design is a complex problem-solving activity that transforms design restrictions and requirements into a set of constraints and explores the feasible solutions to satisfy those constraints. However, design solutions generated by traditional modeling approaches are hardly to deal with such constraints, particularly for the exploration of the possible design solution space to enhance the quality of the design outputs and confront the evolving design requirements. In this regard, the Generative Design Approach (GDA) is considered as an efficient method to explore a large design solution space by transforming the design problem into a configuration problem. Fundamentally, GDA explores and stores all the necessary knowledge through a design skeleton and a set of design elements. Thus, design solution space is easily explored by configuring variable design elements via iterative design processes. Further, the output model is not only a design solution but also a design concept that designers could manipulate to explore unconsidered design configurations. Finally, a crank creation as a running example confirmed that GDA provides concrete aids to enhance the diversity of design solutions.