Chapter 1

Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary

Engineering for Cyber-Physical Production
Systems

Stefan Biffl, Detlef Gerhard, and Arndt Lüder

Abstract The Internet of Things and Services opens new perspectives for goods
and value-added services in various industrial sectors. Engineering of industrial
products and of industrial production systems is a multi-disciplinary, model- and
data-driven engineering process, which involves engineers coming from several
engineering disciplines. These engineering disciplines exploit a variety of engi-
neering tools and information processing systems. This book discusses challenges
and solutions for the required information processing and management capabilities
within the context of multi-disciplinary engineering of production systems. The
authors consider methods, architectures, and technologies applicable in use cases
according to the viewpoints of product engineering and production system engineer-
ing, and regarding the triangle of (1) the product to be produced by (2) a production
process executed on (3) a production system resource.
This chapter motivates the need for better approaches to multi-disciplinary
engineering (MDE) for cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) and provides
background information for non-experts to explain the interaction between produc-
tion engineering, production systems engineering, and enabling contributions from
informatics. Furthermore, the chapter introduces a set of research questions and
provides an overview on the book structure, chapter contributions, and benefits to
the target audiences.

Keywords Multi-disciplinary engineering • Cyber-physical production systems •

Product lifecycle management • Make-to-order • Model-based systems engineer-
ing

S. Biffl () • D. Gerhard

Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
A. Lüder
Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1

S. Biffl et al. (eds.), Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical
Production Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56345-9_1
2 S. Biffl et al.

1.1 Motivation

Designing and developing smart products and systems comprising embedded sys-
tems and Internet of Things (IoT) technology—often referred to as Cyber-Physical
Systems (CPS)—requires the extensive collaboration of several engineering disci-
plines. Product creation processes embrace engineering processes of the definition
of products (or modules/systems) and of the required production system. This book
essentially deals with the challenges of domain-spanning engineering processes of
complex technical systems in the production area. This particular focus is mirrored
in the term Cyber-Physical Production System (CPPS), which is also used in the
title of this book. CPPS depicts the projection of the CPS concept to the production
domain. Nonetheless, CPPS with emphasis on smart products, smart production,
and product service systems have several links to CPS concepts focusing on other
domains, e.g., “smart grid” in the energy domain and “smart mobility” in the
mobility domain.
Within engineering processes for CPPS, several software solutions are used
for different tasks in the sense of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).
These engineering processes lead to many different but linked models, which have
to be managed and maintained. To achieve this goal, typically several types of
business information systems, e.g., Product Data Management (PDM), Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP), and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), form
a company-specific Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. The more
complex engineering projects and associated models get, the more emphasis has
to be put on interoperability and the ability to capture of the semantics of data in
interfacing different systems.
This chapter introduces key characteristics of smart product design and pro-
duction system engineering and derives requirements for informatics approaches
that facilitate information modelling and data integration as foundation for multi-
disciplinary engineering of CPPS.
The world of manufactured products, industrial goods, and services with associ-
ated businesses is changing its face. On the one hand side, there is demand pull.
Drivers for this effect are manifold. New technical solutions are one approach
to solve existing problems of the twenty-first century—often referred to as mega
challenges—on a global scale. Examples are global warming, fresh water or energy
shortage, and population growth. Tackling these challenges often leads to concepts,
which require an increase of cost or resource efficiency, while high quality standards
have to be maintained. In consequence, the complex and interconnected challenges
result in complex technical systems with advanced information technology required
to make them “smart”. Additionally, and sometimes in contrast to the stated global
challenges, huge portions of the world are living in an unprecedented wealth. This
also leads to steadily growing demands in terms of high-end consumer products,
mobility and transport solutions, smart homes etc. Particularly, the demand for
individualized products has increased and the lifecycle of products has shortened
significantly.
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 3

In the early 1990s, car manufacturers had about 3–10 different models. 25 years
later, they have a huge variety of models, crossovers, and derivatives easily exceed-
ing 50–70 major variants. The development time of a car including production
system has shrunk from 6 years to 2–3 years within the same time span. The
sales lifecycle duration of a car was in some cases 30 years or more and is now
about 8 years on average. In the consumer electronics industry, this effect is even
stronger. Once a new smart phone is on the market, the predecessor does not sell any
more, and the time span is not even 1 year. Sometimes, there is even an artificially
generated customer demand, which cannot be explained by rational means, but
western economies heavily rely on growth, and marketing experts do their best in
generating demands.
These effects have a huge impact on industrial production. Production systems
have to be quickly established in parallel to product development and furthermore,
agile and flexible in order to be able to respond rapidly to changed production
demands and variants. There is a strong demand to transform mass production to
“lot-size-one” production while—at the same time—maintaining high quality and
low production cost.
On the other hand—besides demand pull—there is a strong technology push.
This has an impact on the products themselves but also on the production system.
Besides the progress in production technologies enabling producers to exploit
improved production processes, there is progress in automation and control tech-
nology based on information processing. Recent developments in PC-based tech-
nologies make it much cheaper to integrate intelligence into production system
components enabling new control system architectures and new ways of control
decision taking (Vogel-Heuser et al. 2013). For instance, condition monitoring
of a machine tool or production system offers the option to perform preventive
maintenance tasks and thereby reduce downtime or repair costs.
Together, these drivers lead to more complex production systems, see Fig. 1.1.
This complexity has to be faced within both engineering and use of production
systems as well as products produced within them. To do so, engineers have
developed methods and tools like mechatronical engineering, agile programming,
and plug-and-play of devices assisting them in dealing with system complexity and
in dealing with the necessary quality of the engineering results.

Human population
increase: Increased
number of products

Technology
Globalization:
Engineering of progress: Increased
Increased variety
production systems technological
of products
possibilities

Fig. 1.1 Impact factors on production system engineering

4 S. Biffl et al.

One the one hand, we now face several engineering disciplines developed to
enable the best possible engineering of a part of the overall production system.
Initially in the 1950s, the engineering disciplines mainly were mechanical and
electrical engineering, we now see on the one hand specialized disciplines emerging
from the named two, such as multi-body simulation, computational fluid dynamics,
tribology, or material sciences coming from mechanical engineering, and wiring,
enclosure design, or communication system engineering coming from electrical
engineering. In addition, we have seen emerge several new disciplines like control
programming for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and robots or optical sys-
tem engineering (for laser-based welding). All of these disciplines have developed
their special engineering methods, models, and terminologies applied within, and
special tools to be used.
On the other hand, we see engineering process chains increasing in duration,
complexity of the engineered technical system, and complexity of the required
discipline-related skills, knowledge and activities. For example, engineering of
a bodywork line for a car manufacturer contains around 25 engineering steps,
which are executed by 25 different engineering tools. Well-known engineering
activities are mechanical engineering design, electrical wiring design, and control
programming. However, there are also less-known engineering steps, such as
reachability analysis for welding points. All these engineering steps depend on each
other’s results. These dependencies form a tightly knit network. For example, the
reachability analysis for welding points depends on the engineering design of the
welding cell and the selection of a welding gun. In turn, the results of the reachability
analysis for welding points have an impact on the engineering design of the welding
cell and the welding gun selection.
Most of the engineering-discipline-specific tools have been enriched and detailed
to engineering tools for the special engineering activities to be executed. Thereby,
engineering-step-related dialects of the engineering methods, models and terminolo-
gies have emerged.
Engineering of production systems is conducted today in a multi-domain,
multi-model, and multi-method environment, with a multitude of organizational,
technical, and social dependencies. There are some initial works to analyze and
optimize the raised complex engineering organizations, e.g., the VDI Guideline
3695 (VDI 3695 2009). However, the editors of this book are convinced that the
improvement of production system engineering requires detailed knowledge about
the boundary conditions of the engineering. These boundary conditions include
possibilities of upcoming cyber-physical structures of production systems and
(enforced by them) new possibilities of data and knowledge acquisition, integration,
consistency evaluation, and management within collaborative multi-discipline and
multi-model engineering.
CPPS is a very general term. In order to derive the research needs and
challenges for CPPS engineering, it is necessary to distinguish different product
types, production concepts, and production types. In the first place, four production
concepts, reflecting the procedure during order processing, can be differentiated
(Higgins et al. 1996): Make-to-Stock (MTS), or alternatively Pick-to-Order (PTO),
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 5

reflects on production concepts for standard products without variants, which takes
place independent of customer requests and orders, e.g. consumer electronics, hand
machining tools, household appliances. Assemble-to-Order (ATO), or Build-to-
Order (BTO), reflects on preproduction of standard products with manufacturer-
specific variants irrespective of the order but connected to a customer-specific
final production or assembly, e.g. cars and or personal computers. Make-to-Order
(MTO) depicts production of standard products with customer-specific variants that
are partly composed of pre-defined components and partly made up of only pre-
designed components like gas turbines, airplanes, or kitchen furniture. Accordingly,
new components are also created in this concept. Examples are complex machines
for special products, machining tools or utility vehicles. With the Engineer-to-
Order (ETO) concept, products according to customer specifications are produced,
e.g. plant construction or shipbuilding. Because of specialization and considerable
number of new components that have to be designed specific to an order, those
products cannot be completely pre-engineered. A key characteristic of MTO and
ETO production is the combination of existing standard parts with the new or
adapted design of individual parts.
MTS products are typically produced in larger volumes (series or mass pro-
duction) using a specialized production system. Those production systems have a
special engineering process, which starts at a certain maturity level of the product.
Largely they are optimized, often in a clocked flow production. Adaptability and re-
configurability are not main concerns in terms of linking product engineering with
production system engineering. ETO products are in general fixed site fabrications
with job shop pre-manufacturing of single parts or pre-assemblies. Since there are
only single items or small batches to be produced, there is no special engineering
of the production system, but individual workshop production on standard numeric
control (NC) machining tools. Furthermore, intra-logistics and material handling is
in general not automated. The trend towards individualized products with customer
specific requirements is moving industry away from MTS and mass production
towards ATO or MTO in order to meet customer demands. ATO and MTO are often
considered as sub-classes of Configure-to-Order (CTO). Configuration of products
is the essential part of the order process prior to manufacturing and assembly.
Typically, the components of the product cannot be chosen independently, i.e.,
dependencies have to considered. However, in ATO production, the dependencies
are rather simple in nature; components of the product are defined in detail and may
be prefabricated in stock. In MTO production, the dependencies are more complex
compared to ATO, components are manufactured as needed. This requires additional
flexibility in the production process, particularly in terms of detailed production and
material flow planning.
These types of production processes are mainly addressed with CPPS
approaches. Additionally, a far greater collaboration of product engineering and
production system engineering as well as integration of the respective IT systems
is required. A high degree of flexibility for variant rich and customized products
requires the adjustment product structures accordingly. This leads to higher efforts
for product modularization and product line definition. A thoughtful product
6 S. Biffl et al.

structure is the necessary basis of the often referred to products that control their
own production. The essential task of optimization in production is to increase
efficiency in terms of four each opposing target dimensions: variability, quality,
speed, and economy. This applies especially for CPPS approaches.

1.2 Background

Within the prior section, production systems have been named as product of the
ETO approach. In the following, the distinction between product and production
system will be clarified.
Technical systems are often distinguished in product and production system. In
(Stark 2015), a product is characterized as the reason a company exists for, i.e.
it is created and applied within the company business making profit by selling
the product. Products can be tangible like cars and cameras or intangible like a
repair service for cars or a print service for photos. The combination of tangible
products and associated services is referred to as Product Service System (PSS). In
contrast, production systems are seen by the different authors in (El Maraghy 2009)
as a means to create products by appropriate combination of production factors.
Production factors exploited are among others materials, used work-in-progress,
applied production resources (machines), and the human workers executing the
activities. As easily visible, the same object, for example a bakery, can be regarded
as product (by the bakery system integrator) and as a production system for cake
production (by the bakery owner).
Nevertheless, there are strong dependencies between product and production
system. On the on hand, the product requires a production system to be created.
The production system defines boundary conditions to the properties of products
possibly to be created within. On the other hand, products define requirements to the
production system able to produce them. For example within production systems of
optical components of cameras, dedicated cleanness conditions have to be fulfilled.
Hence, within the engineering of a production system, requirements coming from
the products to be created are relevant; within the engineering of the product the
capabilities and boundary conditions of the production system need to be reflected,
see Fig. 1.2.
Facing these dependencies, the engineering of products and production systems
are interlinked and in some way equivalent. To understand this interlinking and
equivalence, the term engineering needs to be understood. With respect to this
book, the definition given by IEEE seems to be most appropriate. In IEEE (1941)
engineering is defined as a process consisting of a sequence of activities that
creatively apply scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines,
apparatus, or manufacturing processes; all as respects of an intended function,
economic and safe operation.
All engineers involved in an engineering project of a technical system, together
with its necessary technical, economical, and management resources, shall be seen
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 7

Product engineering Defines boundary condions

Product Creates Producon system

Producon system
Defines Requirements engineering and
implementaon

Fig. 1.2 Relations between product and production system based on (Biffl et al. 2016)

as engineering organization. The VDI 3695 Guideline “Plant engineering” (VDI

3695 2009) defines an engineering organization as a set of engineering firms or
engineering subunits of a company (supplier, plant manufacturer, plant operator),
which is involved in the engineering process of a technical system. This organization
is involved in planning, realization, and commissioning of new technical systems
and, if necessary, in upgrading, optimizing or modernizing existing technical
systems. Note that an engineering organization is the execution environment and
the executor of MDE.
Widening the picture of MDE engineering in the field of products and production
systems, not only its dependencies buy also its life cycles, shall be reviewed.
VDI/VDE (2014a) gives a good overview about these life cycles related to this
chapter.
Figure 1.3 provides an overview of activities and their relations to the product
and production system life cycle. The product life cycle contains engineering of
a product as an individual entity to be sold. However, in this model, engineering
of one product is not independent from engineering of the other products to be
produced in the considered production system. Here, product line development
covers the informed management of similarities and differences of products required
to fulfil all relevant costumer needs and (in parallel) to not overburden the tech-
nological capabilities of the production system. Finally, a product discontinuation
management belongs to each product (product family) as on the one hand customers
require information about newer versions of their products to be replaced by new
acquisitions and on the other hand technological progress shall be reflected within
product lines. To each existing product type, the production system needs to be able
to process production orders, which need to be generated, shipped and (possibly)
maintained at customer sites.
The link between product and production system is the production process
executing finally the product creation based on orders. The life cycle of a production
system requires engineering of the production system before production execution.
In addition, production system engineering requires the development of production
8 S. Biffl et al.

Product
Product
Product Product line
disconnuaon
engineering development
management

Product order Product order Product order

generaon shipment maintenance

Producon
Producon system
Producon system
installaon and
maintenance
ramp-up

Producon
Producon system Producon system
technology
engineering removal
development

Production system
Fig. 1.3 Value-chain-oriented view on the product and production system life cycle based on
(VDI/VDE 2014a) and (Biffl and Sabou 2016)

technologies to be applied within the production system. Based on the set of avail-
able production technologies (and the set of engineered products), the production
system can be engineered and used in production. In addition, the production system
life cycle contains production system maintenance activities as well as, in case of
production system deterioration, production system removal activities.
Engineering of products and production systems involves several stakeholders.
Obviously, these life cycles will add additional stakeholders relevant for the engi-
neering of products and production systems, which especially will be responsible
for the definition of the boundary conditions of intended function as well as
economic and safe operation of products and production systems as it is intended
in the definition of engineering. Figure 1.4 depicts the interactions between the
stakeholders.
First, there is the plant owner. He is responsible for the economic success of the
production system and, therefore, is involved in the definition of the product to be
produced and the capabilities of the production system to produce the products.
The plant owner will instruct the product engineer with the engineering of
the product as described above. He will collect all necessary boundary conditions
related to the intended function of the product as well as its economic and safe
operation from potential customers and regulation bodies. In addition, he collects
technical boundary conditions related to the necessary production process from the
production system builder.
In parallel, the plant owner will instruct the production system builder (often
also named plant integrator) to set up a production system able to produce
the intended set of products. Together the production system engineer and the
production system builder will engineer, install, and ramp-up the production
system. Therefore, production system builder and engineer will collect all necessary
boundary conditions related to the intended function of the production system from
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 9

Customer
Use phases

Product Production system

Product Sales Production system Plant Owner

maintenance maintainer
Plant operator
Installation phases
Engineering &

Product Production system Production system

engineer builder engineer

Regulation body

Potential Customer Environment Production technology provider

Fig. 1.4 Stakeholders in added-value chains related to industrial plant engineering based on (Biffl
et al. 2016)

the product engineer and the production technology provider. Boundary conditions
related to the economic and safe operation of the production system will come from
regulation bodies, plant operator, and plant owner.
After the product and production system are engineered and (in case of the
production system) set up, the production system can be used by the plant operator
to produce products. The plant operator will get all necessary information how to
produce the product from the product engineer and about how to use the production
system from the production system builder. He will get product orders and their
economic and technical boundary conditions, such as the due dates from sales
departments. To ensure a long-lasting and safe operation of the production system,
the plant operator interacts with the production system maintainer.
After a product has been produced, it is shipped by sales to the customer to be
used. During this use phase of the product, the customer may interact with sales and
product maintenance to ensure the economic and safe operation of the product.
Among these stakeholders, information relevant for the engineering of product
and production system will be exchanged. The discussion of the complete flow of
information goes far beyond the scope of this chapter. Some of the interaction flows
will be considered in detail in later chapters of this book. Here, we will focus on
discussing selected illustrative examples relevant for product and production system
engineering.
• Potential customers are a source of information related to boundary conditions
for the intended functions of the product to be engineered by the Product
10 S. Biffl et al.

engineer. This information cover for example customer use cases, quality
information, product functionality, etc.
• Regulation bodies are a source of boundary conditions related to the safe
operation of the product to be engineered by the product engineer. This includes
for example the definition of regulations regarding safety, potential hazards, and
environmental issues.
• Plant owner and production system builder will exchange both requirements to
the production system functions and to the production system realization process.
Usually, this information includes functional and non-functional requirements
within a tender document (in German: Lastenheft) and the plant maker will reply
with a technical specification (in German: Pflichtenheft).
• Production system builder and production system engineer will exchange the
same type of information as the plant owner and the production system builder,
but on a more detailed level covering only the parts of the technical system that
the production system engineer should contribute to.
• Both the production system builder and the production system engineer will
exchange boundary conditions related to the safe operation of the production
system with the regulation bodies. Examples are pollution regulations, energy
consumption monitoring regulations, and human safety regulations.
• In addition, the production system builder and the production system engineer
will exchange information related to possible functions of the production system
and its usability in the production and/or production system setup, control,
and maintenance. Among others, this covers manufacturing methods, devices
required for the realisation of the manufacturing methods, control code used to
control the manufacturing methods.
A dependency similar to the dependency between product and production system
also exists between production system and production technologies. Within pro-
duction system engineering and installation, the production system is set up based
on the appropriate combination of production system components (Wagner et al.
2010). These components provide capabilities for production process execution
(and in addition capabilities for its integration in the production system during
installation, ramp-up, and maintenance) and can eventually be regarded as CPPS.
These capabilities limit the possibilities within production system engineering and
implementation. In the opposite direction, production system engineering requires
special production technology capabilities to enable the creation of the intended
products, which need to be reflected by production technology development.
Thus, the production system in general cause requirements to further production
technology development. These dependencies are depicted in Fig. 1.5.
The named dependencies between production systems and production system
technologies can also be seen in a different light. Each production system com-
ponent, which provides certain technological functions used within the production
system, is itself a product of a company. These companies act as production
technology providers and are interested in fulfilling the needs of their customers,
the plant owners and production system builders, to the best extent possible.
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 11

Producon technology
development Defines funconal requirements

Producon system
technologies and Creates Producon system
components

Producon system
Defines boundary condions engineering and
implementaon

Fig. 1.5 Relations between production systems technologies and the production system based on
(Biffl et al. 2016)

The sketched dependencies between product, production system, and production

system technologies and components in front of the required efficient engineering
involving multiple engineering disciplines is one of the sources of the newly
intended comprehensive review and redesign of engineering processes like in the
Industrie 4.0 approach.
Within this initiative, companies and research institutions intend to apply
technologies developed within information process and IT sciences for the imple-
mentation of flexibility and adaptability capabilities of production system resources
and production processes. They are focusing on IoT and CPS (Kagermann et al.
2013). Key elements are (among others)
• Self-aware and self-adaptable production system components,
• The intelligent networking components to provide flexibility on system level
using adaptation capabilities and plug-and-work capabilities, and
• The integrated exchange component information related to engineering and
runtime phases along the production system life cycle.
As the Industrie 4.0 component is a controlled part of a production system
including manufacturing physics as well as control intelligence the Industrie 4.0
component shall be considered as a Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS)
(VDI/VDE 2014b) and shall be considered in the triangle of products, production
processes, and resources (production system components). As indicated above, each
product requires for its production the processes defined in its product engineering.
These processes will be processed on a production system component. Each
production system component will process sets of products and will be able to
execute processes. Finally, each process is used for the production of products and
can be executed by production system components (Pfrommer et al. 2013). Facing
this fact, the production process is the lock stone within the roof architecture of the
building integrating product, production system, and production system technology
and components.
12 S. Biffl et al.

1.3 Research Questions

Looking on the described multi-disciplinary nature of the life cycles of products,

production systems, and production system technologies and components, engineers
require increasing support to ensure high quality work efficiently. However, this
support requires additional research from product engineering, production systems
engineering, and informatics communities. Seen from the background of the editors,
three of the most interesting research fields related to the necessary support are the
field of information modelling, the field of integrated information flows, and the
field of key capabilities of the considered objects.
Modelling Within the life cycle of production systems, several information sets
are created and applied. It is common sense that these information sets shall be
represented by models and other means for description that are best applicable for
the involved engineers and technical systems (hard- and software). In this field, the
following research questions are of interest.
RQ M1: Modelling the structure and behavior of CPPS. How can model-based
methodologies be exploited to address the specific multi-disciplinary requirements
for the representation of the structure and behavior of CPPS? This question requires
for example (a) the consideration of requirements for model-based engineering and
model-based application of CPPS, (b) an investigation of usual CPPS architectures,
and (c) the exploration of approaches for automating the multi-disciplinary engi-
neering of CPPS.
RQ M2: Modelling in CPPS life cycle phases. How can model-based method-
ologies support information creation and processing in the different life cycle phases
of a CPPS? Related to this question are methodologies (a) for the automation of
engineering, commissioning, and use of CPPS, (b) for the application of CPPS by
service providers or agents, as well as (c) for addressing the quality needs for models
of CPPS.
Integrated Information Flows Supporting informed decisions by engineers
requires that the relevant information is available when needed in the right quantity
and quality independent of its source. This is valid for the life cycles of product,
production system, and systems operation. From this need, we derive the following
research questions.
RQ I1: Information integration in and across value chains. Which methods
and technologies support the integration on information within and across value
chains of products, production systems, and production technologies? Are there
benefits accessible from the exploitation of CPPS? This question addresses for
example (a) the links between product, production technology, and production
systems engineering, (b) the horizontal and vertical integration within production
systems and production value chains, and (c) the digital links between engineering
and operation phases.
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 13

RQ I2: Quality assurance for information exchange. Which methods and

technologies support assuring the required information quality for information
exchange? This question includes (a) the analysis of typical requirements for the
integration of engineering project data coming from heterogeneous data sources
and typical requirements in a CPPS supply chain, e.g. concerning the ramp-up of a
production system, the examination of multi-disciplinary knowledge integration and
representation, as well as (b) the study of required information quality in different
life cycle phases of CPPS.
RQ I3: Description of plug-and-play capabilities and interfaces for
engineering and run time. Are there specific aspects of information exchange
related to the life cycle of CPPS? It is assumed that relevant aspects will come
from the consideration of typical requirements from product engineering and from
production systems engineering on information modelling and integration in the
multi-disciplinary engineering of CPPS. For example, the product engineering
may provide a description of the production process (required for product
creation) in a way enabling its automatic interpretation and execution in the
production system. This is only possible with appropriate rich description
means.
Key Capabilities of CPPS A CPPS will provide by its nature advanced capabilities
like parameterizable function access and provision of state and health information
related to necessary activities for its design and use along its life cycle phases, which
usually requires cooperative involvement of all technical and informational parts of
the CPPS. The support of multi-disciplinary work in this context will benefit from
answers on the following questions.
RQ C1: Modelling of CPPS flexibility and self-adaptation capabilities.
How can model-based approaches improve the flexibility and self-adaptation
of production systems? What are the roles of product, production technology,
and production system models in this context? This question includes (a)
the consideration of typical requirements for flexibility and adaptability in
software and in hardware systems, and (b) the analysis of methods and tools for
closing the gap between product engineering and production system engineering
as well as (c) the analysis of typical requirements for self-adaptation of
CPPS.
RQ C2: Linking discipline-specific engineering views for flexible and self-
adaptable CPPS. How shall several disciplines in product and production system
engineering be linked to support the engineering of flexible and self-adaptable
CPPS? Within this research question, the exchange of information between both
engineering processes and their relation to the problem of cyber physical systems is
relevant. Especially the digital shadow of products and production systems need to
be considered (Table 1.1).
 14

Table 1.1 Requirements and book chapter contributions: book chapter A addresses research question B strongly (X)
Book chapter A addressing RQ B M1 M2 I1 I2 I3 C1 C2
Part I Product and Systems Design
Chap. 2 Product and Systems Engineering/CA* Tool Chains X X X
Chap. 3 Cyber-Physical Product-Service Systems X X X
Chap. 4 Product Lifecycle Management Challenges of CPPS X X X X
Part II Production System Engineering
Chap. 5 Fundamentals of Artifact Reuse in CPPS X X
Chap. 6 Identification of Artifacts in Life Cycle Phases of CPPS X X X X
Chap. 7 Description Means for Information Artifacts Throughout the Life Cycle of CPPS X X X
Chap. 8 Engineering of Next Generation Cyber-Physical Automation System Architectures X X
Chap. 9 Engineering Workflow and Software Tool Chains of Automated Production Systems X X X
Chap. 10 The Problem of Standardized Information Exchange within Production System Engineering X X
Part III Information Modeling and Integration
Chap. 11 Model-Driven Systems Engineering: Principles and Application in the CPPS Domain X X X X
Chap. 12 Semantic Web Technologies for Data Integration in Multi-Disciplinary Engineering X X X
Chap. 13 Patterns for Self-Adaptation in Cyber Physical Systems X
Chap. 14 Service Oriented Architecture Middleware for Vertical Integration in Industrial Enterprises X
Chap. 15 A Deterministic Product Ramp-Up Process—How to Integrate a Multi-Disciplinary Knowledge Base X X X X
Chap. 16 Towards Model Quality Assurance for Multi-Disciplinary Engineering—Needs, Challenges, and Solution X X
Concept in an AutomationML Context
S. Biffl et al.
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 15

Part 2: Production
system engineering

Part 3: Information
Part 1:
Multi-* Engineering modeling and
Product design
integration

Fig. 1.6 General book structure

1.4 Book Structure

The aim of this book is to provide insight into the field of multi-* engineering,
where * can stand for discipline, domain, and/or model. The book is written within
the context of the upcoming next generation of production systems envisioned by
research and development initiatives, such as Industrie 4.0 in Germany, Industrial
Internet Consortium in USA, Factory of the Future in France and UK, or Made in
China 2025 from China and will cover the engineering of industrial products and
industrial production systems, with their dependencies named above.
The book in hand discusses topics including
• The multi-disciplinary and multi-model nature of engineering processes,
• Data integration needs along the various value adding chains,
• Dependencies between products, production processes, and production systems
within engineering processes,
• Architectures of products and production systems enabling improved engineering
processes, and
• Needs and approaches for information modelling and integration.
Therefore, the book is structured into three main parts, see Fig. 1.6, dedicated
to product design, production system engineering, and information modelling and
integration.

1.4.1 Part I: Product Design

Part I on Product Design discusses challenges of and approaches for designing and
developing products with varying degrees of flexibility. These products provide
added value to users and added complexity to production process and system
engineers. An important part of engineering is the multi-disciplinary process
creating information models for the evaluation of product concepts and for reuse
in production systems engineering.
16 S. Biffl et al.

Chapter 2: Product and Systems Engineering/CA* Tool Chains discusses the

specifics of engineering processes and the development of CPS from a mechanical
engineering design point of view. Emphasis is put on Model-Based Systems
Engineering (MBSE) methods and the required software tools to cope with existing
challenges of different domains especially related to system analysis and system
integration. The chapter contains a description of data and information flows from
an organizational point of view as well as from the product development point of
view. This includes information models (e.g., in SysML) as well as organization and
tailoring of tools and tool chains.
Chapter 3: Cyber-Physical Product Service Systems is discussing the important
topic of product related services, which are deeply integrated in the product
development and use like the provision of a machining capability service useable by
a producing company. It gives a definition of service-based product service systems
(PSS) and unveils the state-of-the-art of CPS-based PSS with major research issues.
The evolution from products to solutions and servitization is shown as well as
the elements and life cycle of CPS-based PSS including hardware, software, and
service elements with integration of product and service life cycles. Based on
industrial use cases, this chapter also deals with challenges for engineering a
CPS-based PSS in terms of complexity, end user involvement with distributed
stakeholders, and involvement of multiple disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering,
information systems, and service science). This discussion of challenges leads
to implications for designing engineering processes, particularly cross-domain
requirements engineering and design, but also for designing servitized business
models enabled by CPS (i.e., business models related to product services).
Chapter 4: Product Lifecycle Management Challenges of CPPS summarizes data
and information management issues arising from the advanced use of Model-Based
Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods that result from engineering processes of
smart systems and individualized products with high complexity and variability.
The chapter focuses on challenges of the life-cycle integration of products and
the respective CPPS especially addressing the information exchange oriented
possible dependencies between engineering, production, and use phases of products.
Furthermore, data and information management problems coming from integration
of the named life cycle phases of products and systems in terms of forward and
backward information flows are addressed.

1.4.2 Part II: Production System Engineering

Part II on Production System Engineering discusses the design of flexible production

systems, which can be adapted effectively and efficiently to provide a scope
of production processes and address the challenges coming from products and
production processes, which have advanced requirements on flexibility. Key topics
are concepts, methods, and tools to deal with dependencies between production
system model parts and discipline-specific sub models. An important part is the
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 17

simulation and virtual commissioning of flexible production systems to reduce the

risks coming from added flexibility.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 build a common frame for the consideration of hierarchical
and modular production system architectures and related information along their
life cycle. These chapters provide a discussion of the question, which parts of a
production system can be regarded as components within the hierarchy and which
functionalities and information are assigned to them.
Chapter 5: Fundamentals of Artifact Reuse in CPPS discusses meaningful layers
within the hierarchy of production system components and their life cycle. Based
on a literature survey and practical experiences candidates for hierarchy layers are
identified and their identification criteria are named. In addition, main life cycle
phases of production systems are discussed. The thereby developed hierarchy serves
as a foundation for the reusability and modularization of Industrie 4.0 components.
Chapter 6: Identification of Artifacts in Life Cycle Phases of CPPS considers in
detail the information sets relevant for a production system component along the life
cycle of a production system. For each of the three main life cycle phases named
in Chap. 5 relevant artifacts are identified, assigned to the different layers of the
production system hierarchy, and discussed against main cases of information reuse
within the life cycle of production systems. Thereby, it is intended to enable an
identification of hierarchy layers based on relevant information sets.
Chapter 7: Description Means for Information Artifacts Throughout the Life Cycle
of CPPS again takes up the artifacts and description means related to them in each
of the three life cycle phases on each layer of the hierarchical production system
structure as proposed in Chap. 5. These artifacts are clustered and generic artifact
classes are derived from the fragmented information artifact landscape. Description
means are assigned to the artifact classes, enabling a holisting information manage-
ment and paving the way for future research on this topic.
Chapter 8: Engineering of Next Generation Cyber-Physical Automation System
Architectures provides a summary of non-hierarchical control system architectures
that could be applied in industrial automation domain as well as a review of
their commonalities. The chapter aims to point out the differences between the
traditional centralized and hierarchical architecture to the discussed architectures,
which rely on decentralized decision-making and control. The chapter also explores
the challenges and impacts that industries and engineers face in the process of
adopting decentralized control architectures, analyzing the obstacles for industrial
acceptance and the necessary new interdisciplinary engineering skills. In the end,
the chapter gives an outlook of possible mitigation and migration activities required
to implement decentralized control architectures.
Chapter 9: Engineering Workflow and Software Tool Chains of Automated Pro-
duction Systems presents an overview of tool chains that are applied in the
production system engineering process. The current workflow of production system
engineering is described. In particular, three essential phases of the workflow are
considered in detail, namely mechanical design, electrical design, and software
18 S. Biffl et al.

design. With respect to those essential phases, tool chains are presented that are
well established in industry and applied by practitioners. In addition, the tool chain
of planning and simulating production processes is discussed. In this regard, various
engineering data formats and information that is required as input or results as
output by engineering tools is explained. One conclusion that can be derived from
the described workflow is the necessity of a standardized data format to exchange
engineering data along the entire production system engineering process. As a
consequence the role of AutomationML as a potential standardized data format
is addressed in this chapter and exemplarily presented for the case of virtual
commissioning of a production system.
Chapter 10: The Problem of Standardized Information Exchange within Production
System Engineering discusses the problem of appropriate structuring (syntax)
and meaning (semantics) definition for a file based data exchange technology
applicable within information exchange among life cycles, engineering disciplines,
and engineering activities of information driven production systems. Based on a
set of use cases challenges of the information exchange and application within
information driven production systems have been highlighted. The use cases have
been accompanied of current standardization activities undertaken to make the use
cases possible. In addition, information exchange technologies will be discussed
starting with requirements an information exchange technology has to fulfil in an
information driven production system and discussing the fulfilment level of these
requirements provided by different existing information exchange technologies.
As a special case of file-based information exchange AutomationML is consid-
ered. It is discussed how AutomationML deals with the standardization of syntax and
semantics and how the five main challenges of the standardization of data exchange
formats can be fulfilled.

1.4.3 Part III: Information Modeling and Integration

Part III on Information Modeling and Integration discusses an informatics view

on concepts, methods, and software tools for data management in heterogeneous
cyber-physical production-system-engineering environments. This part will discuss
data models and software solutions exploiting Model-Based System Engineering,
Semantic Web, and service-oriented approaches for handling engineering projects
of typical size and complexity. Several chapters discuss alternative approaches for
representing engineering knowledge as foundation for designing applications to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of engineering processes in the context of
multi-disciplinary engineering or CPPS. As a result, the reader can make a better
informed decision on which selection of engineering knowledge representation
approaches is likely to be most appropriate in a given application context.
Chapter 11: Model-Driven Systems Engineering: Principles and Application in the
CPPS Domain discusses advantages and current challenges towards the adoption of
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 19

model-based approaches in cyber-physical production system (CPPS) engineering.

In particular, the chapter discusses how modeling languages and model transforma-
tions are employed to support current system engineering processes and show their
application for a Pick-and-Place Unit (PPU) production system.
This chapter follows the model-based software engineering approach, which
sees models and their metamodels as the central artifacts for engineering and for
automating engineering processes. Abstraction, a key concept of modeling, can
become a challenge at integration points during the engineering process in a multi-
disciplinary environment, as different stakeholders may choose abstractions that are
hard to reconcile with the modeling choices of other stakeholders.
Chapter 12: Semantic Web Technologies for Data Integration in Multi-Disciplinary
Engineering investigates how Semantic Web technologies can support multi-
disciplinary engineering processes in CPPS engineering. The chapter discusses
typical requirements for intelligent data integration and access in the context
of CPPS engineering and shows how these can be addressed by Semantic Web
technologies and tools. For this, we draw on our own experiences in building
Semantic Web solutions for engineering environments as well as on a survey of other
Semantic-Web-enabled engineering projects. This chapter summarizes material
published in the Springer Book entitled “Semantic Web for Intelligent Engineering
Applications” (2016).
This chapter follows the Semantic Web approach, which puts the focus on the
representation and integration of linked engineering knowledge as foundation for
intelligent engineering applications. The Semantic Web approach originated from
the need to harness the heterogeneity of information representation on the Internet.
Therefore, the Semantic Web inherently assumes a variety of information models
as input to designing software application for automating business and engineering
processes.
Chapter 13: Patterns for Self-Adaptation in Cyber-Physical Systems investigates
existing studies of CPS with regard to self-adaptation mechanisms and models,
applied across the technology stack. From this investigation, we derive recurring
patterns and adaptation models, consolidating design knowledge on self-adaptation
in CPS, in particular CPPS. The patterns and models can support future CPS
designers with the realization and coordination of self-adaptation concerns. Finally,
this chapter outlines a research agenda to advance self-adaptation and coordination
in the domain of CPS.
Chapter 14: Service-Oriented Architecture Middleware for Vertical Integration
in Industrial Enterprises focuses on the technological aspects involved in devel-
oping a service-oriented solution for vertical integration in a heterogeneous CPPS
context. The chapter addresses the typical state of industrial enterprises and the
core technologies currently available for the development of a gateway service
bus (GSB). Therefore, the chapter will discuss aspects related to enterprise and
network architectures, constraints and technologies to discern the challenges to
vertical integration and suggest methods for integrating GSBs in enterprises. In
20 S. Biffl et al.

addition, the chapter will discuss connectivity strategies and standards that may be
used to coordinate the GSB and its services, and to integrate PPS to finally generate
a holistic framework for the secure operation of CPPS-based industrial plants.
This chapter follows the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach, which
represents systems as service interfaces that allow flexibly designing application
systems even if the technologies of the underlying services differ and the run-time
availability of services changes.
Chapter 15: Deterministic Product Ramp-Up Processes—How to Integrate a Multi-
Disciplinary Knowledge Base describes the involvement of a multi-disciplinary
knowledge base in a production environment in order to address the challenge
of knowledge distribution across product development, production engineering,
and elements of the supply chain. The chapter highlights how production data
has to be maintained and prepared for the automated support of ramp-up project
planning. Through this improvement of planning quality based on reusing existing
production knowledge, ramp-up projects can be improved towards deterministic
ramp-up processes. This chapter provides an example application for the Semantic
Web approach.
Chapter 16: Towards Model Quality Assurance for Multi-Disciplinary
Engineering—Needs, Challenges, and Solution Concept in an AutomationML
Context discusses how models and their quality play an important role in multi-
disciplinary engineering (MDE) projects as inputs to and outputs of engineering
processes. MDE projects include various disciplines, such as mechanical,
electrical, and software engineering. These disciplines apply generic and domain-
specific models in their engineering context. Important challenges include model
synchronization (of often-heterogeneous input from various disciplines) and model
quality assurance (MQA) that is covered insufficiently in current MDE practices.
The chapter focuses on the needs and approaches for MQA in isolated disciplines
as well as in MDE environments, where engineers from different disciplines have
to collaborate. Further, the chapter includes related work on MDE and MQA and
presents concepts and an initial evaluation of MQA approaches in the context of
selected MDE processes.

1.5 Who Shall Read This Book?

This book will be of interest to several target groups: decision makers, product and
production system engineering professionals, researchers, and students within the
various fields of production system engineering and information processing related
sciences. All of these groups will better understand the challenges and needs of
engineering project stakeholders coming from the dependencies between products
and production systems with increased variability.
Decision Makers, such as industrial managers, and business professionals are
interested in a general point of view on how best to make use of the capabilities
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 21

that products and production systems provide. These groups will take away from
this book an up-to-date view on future production system capabilities, in particular,
on the challenges of and approaches for designing and developing products with
varying degrees of flexibility. The CPPS vision will bring added value to users and
added complexity to production process and system engineers. This added value
and complexity have to be harnessed by novel kinds of families of systems, such as
Product Service Systems or Product Lifecycle Management systems.
To support structuring decision making in a CPPS context, the book will
provide better understanding of the benefits and limitations of applicable methods,
architectures, and technologies for selected use cases.
Regarding information modelling and integration, the book will highlight the
heterogeneous nature of data needed in multi-disciplinary engineering for decision
making and explain data integration needs along the various value adding chains.
To address data representation and integration the book will support making better
informed decisions on which engineering knowledge representation approaches are
likely to be most appropriate in a given application context to provide the knowledge
needed for making key decisions.
Beyond information modelling and integration, the book will provide inside in
the needs of information generation, processing, and use along the life cycle of
products and production systems, enabling decision makers to take more informed
decisions related to the management and improvement of engineering and use
processes within production system environments.
Finally, the book will give an overview on informatics approaches that provide
strong contributions to decision making with intelligent information representation,
integration, quality assurance, and access in the context of CPPS engineering,
such as Model-Based System Engineering, Semantic Web, and service-oriented
approaches for CPPS engineering.
Users of Production Systems will become aware of the challenge of knowledge
distribution across product development, production engineering, and elements of
the supply chain. They will get an overview on approaches to select and use relevant
integrated knowledge with appropriate methods, based on case studies, such as
deterministic product ramp-up.
Engineering Professionals, including engineers of products and of production
systems, will become aware of the major challenges of and approaches for designing
and developing products with varying degrees of flexibility. They will better
understand the viewpoints of the different engineering disciplines involved in
CPPS engineering, as well as the benefits and limitations of applicable methods,
architectures, and technologies for selected use cases. A core topic is the need for
data integration along the various value adding chains, in particular, needs and
approaches for information modelling and integration coming from engineering
processes of smart systems and individualized products with high complexity and
variability.
Product engineers will get better insight into the capabilities of CPPS, so they
can consider these capabilities for designing innovative products. They will come to
22 S. Biffl et al.

better understand the multi-disciplinary process of creating information models for

the evaluation of product concepts and for reuse in production systems engineering,
which is essential to achieve the key benefits of CPPS engineering.
Production systems engineers coming from different disciplines, e.g., mechan-
ical, electrical, and software engineering, will better understand architectures of
products and production systems enabling improved engineering processes, which
in turn is the foundation for improved creative interaction with product engineers,
and for understand flexibility options better. They will appreciate approaches for
better forward and backward information flow between engineering and operation
phases as a foundation for focused improvement of engineering designs and
optimizing systems operations with knowledge coming from engineering models.
Finally, both product engineers and production system engineers will get inside
in the needs and challenges of the other set of engineers enabling the improvement
of a mutual discussion of upcoming challenges within their interaction as well as
enabling the reuse of engineering information on both sides.
Researchers from the fields of product engineering, industrial production systems
engineering, and information modeling and integration, will benefit from better
awareness on the challenges, needs, and approaches in the multi-disciplinary and
multi-model engineering of CPPS.
Product engineering researchers can consider how to use the information around
engineering to design better capabilities for product engineering processes. They
will be introduced to information sources from production systems engineering,
e.g., using the emerging standard AutomationML, and from operation, e.g., using
the standard OPC UA, that can be used for improving the product design process.
Industrial production systems engineering researchers will get a better under-
standing of the challenges and requirements of multi-disciplinary engineering that
will guide them in future research and development activities. They will get ideas
on how to use the information available around engineering and operation to design
better capabilities for CPPS engineering processes. They will become aware of
alternatives to hierarchical control system architectures, their potential challenges
and impacts on production systems engineering. They will get a better overview of
selected tool chains that are evaluated in the production system engineering process
towards virtual commissioning, AutomationML for data exchange and engineering
knowledge accumulation, and selected mechanisms for the self-adaptation in cyber-
physical systems. As a consequence, they will be able to make better informed
decisions on which engineering knowledge representation approaches are likely to
be most appropriate in a given application context.
IT researchers will be enabled to better understand the application domain
of CPPS engineering to provide relevant information management methods as a
foundation to address the dependencies between products, production processes,
and production systems within engineering processes. They will be supported in
making the decision on which engineering knowledge representation approaches
are likely to be appropriate in a given application context, based on case studies that
allow comparing the contributions of Model-Based System Engineering, Semantic
1 Introduction to the Multi-Disciplinary Engineering for Cyber-Physical. . . 23

Web, and service-oriented approaches for CPPS engineering. They will get an
overview on key IT capabilities for CPPS engineering, such as modeling languages
and model transformations, as well as intelligent data integration and access in a
heterogeneous CPPS environment, as a foundation for designing and evaluating
informatics contributions to CPPS engineering.
Finally, students of various disciplines related to production and information
processing systems can use this book as textbook to gain understanding of various
architectures for information creation, processing, and use within the interrelated
life cycles of products and production system. For example, they will find discus-
sions about the interrelations of life cycles, the description of special life cycles, the
description of production system hierarchies, and the description of a methodology
for defect identification within engineering data.
Thus, students will especially benefit from the book during their final graduation
activities finding detailed representation of the state of the art related to multi-
domain model-driven engineering.

Acknowledgment This work was supported by the Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft, the
Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, and the National Foundation for Research,
Technology and Development in Austria.

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