Consistency Preservation in Integrated Product Engineering – an Industrial Study

In industrial practice, persistent inconsistencies between product engineering and production system engineering continue to pose significant challenges, despite the availability of various integrative planning approaches. These inconsistencies can lead to substantial inefficiencies, leading to ever-increasing costs. While numerous methodologies have been developed to bridge the gap between these two domains, ranging from concurrent engineering to digital twins and Product-Production-CoDesign development, many practical issues remain unresolved.This research aims to deepen the understanding of the nature and persistence of these integration problems. Based on various empirical studies, an interview study was conducted to investigate which methods and approaches are used to identify inconsistencies and subsequently restore consistency. To this end, twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in an industrial environment, and the results were evaluated through a qualitative content analysis. Our findings reveal that various solutions, specifically designed to address the challenges of identifying and restoring inconsistencies throughout the product development process, are in place. ... mehrNevertheless, organizational and communication barriers frequently undermine their effectiveness, highlighting the need for a unified method for the reliable, domain-independent identification of inconsistencies and restoration of consistency.By examining the current inconsistency identification and restoration methods in greater detail, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the practical issues. The insights gained provide a foundation for developing more robust and adaptive planning approaches that better align product engineering and production system engineering perspectives in industrial practice.