Mechatronics Development: A Management Challenge

PLM can help companies design complex products with mechanical, electronics, and software components

By Ed Miller

Increasing product complexity is a trend in many industries. One reason for this trend is the growing importance of software-driven electronics in many products that traditionally have been comprised mostly of mechanical components. Today, a wide range of products use software-driven electronics to make them work. The examples are wide-ranging and include automobiles, aircraft, defense systems, machine tools, home appliances, and many others. Automobiles, for example, are becoming computers on wheels with advanced safety features, diagnostics, engine control, and other functionality unheard of even a few years ago. In some cases, software is being used to enable innovative and sophisticated capabilities not previously available or economically feasible. In other cases, software-driven electronics allows common mechanical product configurations to deliver different operating characteristics for different markets; a huge cost benefit for manufacturers. These opportunities are driving the trend toward mechatronics: designs that blend mechanical, electronics, and embedded software.

The term "mechatronics" is becoming widely recognized in many industries but not commonly used in some others, where a variety of names such as "total systems engineering" or "electro-mechanical systems engineering" are often used. Regardless the terminology, the issue is of growing importance across to an expanding range of companies. Since the name mechatronics is gaining in recognition, it is the term we will use in this article.

Not all industries are new to mechatronics. For example, organizations in the aerospace and defense industry have been faced with these issues for years. In fact, mechatronics-related problems are so well recognized that there are specific initiatives from the Department of Defense (DOD) and other Ministries of Defense (MOD) around the world forcing organizations that design and develop defense products/systems to manage this environment more effectively. The U.S. DOD's Force Transformation initiative is one such example.

Although mechatronics is clearly an issue that more and more companies want to address, it isn't a problem that has been easily solved. Effectively incorporating mechatronics systems into products isn't done without overcoming some formidable challenges. Traditionally, the environments used to support development of mechanical, electronic, and software components and products are completely separate, utilizing different protocols. These include Mechanical Computer-Aided Design (MCAD), Electronic Design Automation (EDA), and Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. These different categories of systems often do not support reasonable exchange of data between each other. Additionally, simulation technologies generally cannot account for mechanical, electronic, and software behavior to fully evaluate overall product performance in a single virtual model that integrates all these disciplines.

While technical challenges are substantial, some of the biggest impediments to success with mechatronics are organizational in nature. At most companies, structures generally are organized for the different disciplines to work independently, for the most part functioning in isolation from one another and passing project information from one group to another in serial fashion. In many cases, mechanical engineering completes work and then forwards tasks to electronic/electrical design engineering, which then forwards tasks to software engineering. Disciplines work in silos with their own individual design processes and non-integrated information system tools. As a result, engineers downstream in development have little opportunity to provide valuable input early in the cycle, and design deficiencies often are not uncovered until late in the process when changes are costly and time-consuming.

By necessity, mechatronics is changing this perspective with a more holistic approach in which managers are focused on the product in its totality and design teams are becoming more integrated. Members work in parallel and more collaboratively under one virtual roof. In this way, work is completed more efficiently, problems are circumvented up front in development, product design is optimized, development time is shortened, and innovation is encouraged. One of the biggest challenges to this approach is developing appropriate work processes that accommodate the nuances and intricacies of the different design fields in a single coherent program. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategies must provide the foundation for implementing such an approach by providing cross-functional visibility for managing the total design program together with tools and processes that allow people in the different disciplines to work as an integrated team.

With MCAD, EDA, and CASE design tools integrated into one PLM design environment, designers in any of these disciplines should be able to readily collaborate in the process and work with appropriate design components. By providing a virtual single work-in-process shared repository for all engineering data, PLM maintains accurate configuration control, giving engineers ready access to accurate, up-to-date information that includes latest changes to the design. By acting as an information backbone in this manner, PLM enables cross-functional mechatronics teams to iterate more effectively and work more collaboratively on the design. PLM supports and facilitates the management and execution of required steps in the processes across the design disciplines, and ties these into the overall program management for the enterprise.

Enabled by PLM, companies can more effectively organize and manage the integrated, collaborative teams needed to develop the mechatronics designs that are becoming critical to the success of a growing number of manufacturers. The most successful companies will be those that address this increasingly critical aspect of product development now, as a differentiator against slower-moving competitors that may not yet fully understand the shifting dynamics of product design.

CIMdata Inc. (www.CIMdata.com, 734/668-9922) is an independent worldwide firm providing strategic consulting to maximize an enterprise's ability to design and deliver innovative products and services through the application of PLM strategies. CIMdata works with both industrial organizations and suppliers of PLM-related technologies and services. The company also conducts research, provides subscription services, produces several commercial publications, and offers industry education throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.

Ed Miller is president of CIMdata, an internationally recognized authority on PLM and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and seminars around the world on trends, directions, strategies, methods, and technology issues. He welcomes reader comments and can be reached at e.miller@CIMdata.com