## 3 Research Design and TEDP-Methodology
### Real Case Study  
In order to find a suitable reference process for iMMS from the variety of available reference processes for product development, which then can be adapted more precisely to the respective analyzed iMMS product groups, a real case study is presented in this section. Additionally, this case study validates the conducted methodology in Section 3.2. Case studies constitute an appropriate empirical investigation for decision problems [58; 59]. It is, therefore, intended to conduct a case study for decision making in order to find suitable reference processes. Section 1 shows that MID and DMT are appropriate for the manufacturing of iMMS. Therefore, these technologies are considered and in use. These technologies enabled manufacturing an iMMS according to the definition in Section 1, as illustrated in Figure 4.  
In this case study, PUC 6 is considered because, in this use case, the product is very complex and requires several manufacturing technologies. The complexity of this product is confirmed by the fact that there are very few soft tooli  
Figure 4: Smart connector as iMMS. Figure 3: Short excerpt of the inductive categorization of use cases with requirements to create product groups (methodology). undercuts. The soft tooling consists of four components, which are injection mold, ejector mold and two different slides (see Figure 5). The project was carried out in co-operation with a company that develops and distributes high-quality connectors worldwide. The goal is to develop and produce an intelligent electrical connector with contacts on the input side and a substrate that was customer-specifically and individually developed. The idea and aim are to produce rapidly for early customers who can then provide feedback for serial production. In order to be able to validate the feasibility of series production at an early stage, it makes sense not to print the component directly (rapid prototyping or direct manufacturing) but to use an additively manufactured tool insert (soft tooling). That way, the injection-molding process can be validated, and failure costs in the subsequent production of steel tools can be avoided (see Figure 6). Before establishing the EDP for new products, it is important to obtain market insights regarding customer demands. The co-operating company found out, from its own market analysis, that real-time monitoring of physical variables is more and more important  
Figure 5: Overview of the soft tooling components that are printed with digital light processing (DLP): (**a**) ejector mold; (**b**) cavity; (**c**) injection mold; (**d**) slides M18 and M14. Figure 6: In-process injection molding with soft tooling with slides. for customers. Beyond this market analysis, Section 1 underlines the relevance of smart systems. After ensuring the demand, the development process starts. The EDP started with the idea stage, which was supported by brainstorming and design thinking techniques. After the idea stage, the project leaders who know the customer and market requirements defined specific requirements. These two stages were conducted with employees from the middle and senior management. This took about five working days. The next step consisted of the system design also called \"conceptualization\" or \"cross-domain solution concept\". In this step, for the first time, the involvement of all disciplines (micro-electronics, micro-mechanics, informatics) is required. As there were adaptations and suggestions from each domain, primary ideas and requirements had to be adapted. This caused high costs and time delays already at early stages. Most of the adjustments and suggestions were made in order to manufacture more reliably and efficiently. It was obvious that the suggested alternative solutions from each department were more economical and efficient and still met the requirements. The next step was domain-specific design and modeling. At this stage, the developer carried out detailed work, mostly focusing on each domain separately.