Integrative development of product and production system for mechatronic products

The increasing penetration of mechanical engineering by information technology enables considerable benefits. The arising new discipline is referred to by the term mechatronics, which expresses the close integration of mechanics, electrics/electronics, control engineering and software engineering. Hence, the design and production of such systems is an interdisciplinary and complex task. An effective and continuous cooperation and communication between developers from different domains during the whole development process is required. Moreover, the multidisciplinary and synergetic effectiveness of mechatronic systems as well as new production technologies cause strong interdependencies between system parts, which are to be produced. As a consequence, the production system determines the product concept. Restrictions by manufacturing technologies have to be considered already during the early stages of the product development. This contribution deals with the stated problem by providing both, a generic procedure model and a specification technique for the integrative development of mechatronic products and their production systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.