G. Pomberger, F. Stallinger, R. Neumann, R. Plösch, P. Hehenberger, B. Böhm, A. Köhlein, N. Gewald: Improving Mechatronical Engineering: an Artifact-Assessment-Based Approach, Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA'2011, Toulouse, France, September 5-9, 2011, IEEE catalog number: CFP11ETF-USB, ISBN: 978-1-4577-0016-3, doi:10.1109/ETFA.2011.6059101
Industrial engineering as a specialization of systems engineering inherently has mechatronic character. The seamless integration of engineering activities across engineering disciplines and throughout the overall engineering life cycle is a key element for achieving optimal technical as well as economic results and has to be supported by adequate engineering concepts and models. In this paper we present a criteria catalog for the qualitative evaluation of engineering artifacts created in or for engineering projects or contained in mechatronic product catalogs. The criteria catalog forms the basis for an assessment-based approach for evaluating mechatronic objects with the main purposes of providing the basis for characterizing, comparing, and improving them and furthermore for identifying directions for engineering improvements.