Gesamtsystemdesign

Gesamtsystemdesign is a holistic design approach in systems engineering and product development that aims to create a system as an integrated whole rather than as a collection of separate parts. It considers the complete set of subsystems, their interfaces, the operating environment, and the full lifecycle from conception to disposal.

Its central idea is holistic thinking: aligning stakeholder needs, technical feasibility, economic viability, and sustainability. It requires explicit management of interfaces, compatibility among components, and the management of trade-offs between performance, cost, risk, and maintainability. The method often relies on model-based techniques and system architecture thinking to capture requirements, behaviours, and constraints across the system boundary.

The typical process includes requirement elicitation and validation, architectural design, component selection, integration, and verification through testing and simulation. It emphasizes traceability from high-level goals to design decisions and open communication among disciplines. Lifecycle considerations include deployment, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life planning.

Applications are common in automotive, aerospace, industrial automation, information technology, and large-scale infrastructure. Benefits include improved interoperability, reduced lifecycle costs, and better risk management, while challenges include managing complexity, coordinating multiple stakeholders, and balancing competing objectives. Gesamtsystemdesign is closely linked with systems engineering and model-based systems engineering, and it complements specialized optimization by focusing on the system as a whole rather than a single component.