A method of mechanical product quality characteristic variation mitigation based on linkage model was studied. Linkage object was constructed as the basic encapsulation unit and linkage matrix and network models are built to support for variation propagation and mitigation analysis. On the basis of the linkage model, the mechanisms of variation mitigation are analyzed, the variation mitigation strategies by source and path are proposed and the typical variation mitigation technologies are concluded. In the following, the variation mitigation process model is described with the definitions of variation mitigation space, mitigation unit, mitigation path and mitigation plan, the variation propagation probability is calculated and the minimum risk principle of variation mitigation plan selection is given. A case study is provided to validate the effectiveness of variation mitigation based on linkage model.