Function-based engineering framework for the standardization of industrial plants

Industrial enterprises are facing an increasing complexity of their manufactured products. In order to support engineering organizations to increase their profitability, this paper presents major success factors for efficient plant engineering. These factors are based on the analysis of six case studies regarding standardization programs from the plant engineering domain. Subsequently, a function-based standardization framework for the plant engineering domain is developed. The framework can be applied to fulfill the most important success factors identified in the case studies. It helps to improve the interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the whole engineering process of a plant by using mechatronic (information) objects. By providing a function-based modularization strategy for the engineering of plants, the project comprehensive reusability ratio of developed plant artifacts can be improved as well. Finally, the function-based engineering framework is evaluated in a case study to prove its feasibility.