Preprint (as submitted): To be cited as follows: Wuest, T., Klein, D., Seifert, M., & Thoben, K. D. (2012). Method to describe interdependencies of state characteristics related to distortion. Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik, 43(1-2), 186-191. Method to Describe Interdependencies of State Characteristics Related to Distortion Thorsten Wuest, Dieter Klein, Marcus Seifert, Klaus-Dieter Thoben BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Universität Bremen, Hochschulring 20, 28359 Bremen, Germany, {wue, kln, sf, tho}@biba.uni-bremen.de Abstract The product state can be described through its state characteristics. In each process step some state characteristics will be changed to add value to the product. It is also important to be aware of how state characteristics change over time and valuable to understand the interdependencies between different state characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method, which describes and illustrates interdependencies between relevant state characteristics along a production process chain with the goal to increase transparency for the stakeholders of the product. The process chain of a bearing ring within the project CRC 570 Distortion Engineering and interdependencies of relevant state characteristics connected to distortion and distortion potential will be used as an example to illustrate the above-mentioned method. A discussion on limitations and benefits of this approach will serve as a conclusion. Keywords Product state, state characteristics, interdependencies, production process, distortion 1 Introduction The face of the worldwide manufacturing industry has changed over the last years. Emerging economies, like the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries, transformed from mostly consuming industrial goods to becoming producing players on the field. As a result, the European manufacturing industry is struggling to compete on price for standard industrial products. Nevertheless, Germany’s manufacturing industry is growing and plays an important role for the country’s economy [Thesing, Randow, Kirchfeld, Berberich, Webb 2010]. One of the reasons for this success is that German products are of high quality and technologically advanced [Economist 2006]. At the same time, customer’s requirements on quality increase steadily. For example, steel products today have to serve very specific purposes and, within this specialization, have to be optimized to perform under challenging conditions such as gear wheels in huge windmills [Stiele, Schulte 2005]. Every individual product has to meet specific quality requirements to serve its purpose. Realizing that the German economy’s value on high quality and advanced technology for industrial products serves as a competitive advantage on the global business environment, manufacturing companies have to continuously improve their quality and work closely with their customers to assure future competitiveness and business success. When it comes to product quality, the importance of production processes cannot be rated high enough. The quality of these processes has a direct impact on product quality itself [Brinksmeier 1991]. This can e.g. be seen in the case of distortion potential of a steel product where influencing factors are distributed over the whole production chain [Zoch 2009]. Therefore, managing and improving these production processes is a major challenge for the future. As expectations on the ability and quality of products increase constantly, production processes are becoming more complex and are often carried out at multiple locations [Seifert 2007]. Collaborations of distributed partners with different core competencies are formed to reach the goal of fulfilling the customer expectations. The form of collaboration may vary but typical