MICOSE4aPS: Industrially Applicable Maturity Metric to Improve Systematic Reuse of Control Software

TL;DR

This paper introduces MICOSE4aPS, a metric-based method to assess control software maturity in automated production systems, aiming to enhance software reuse and quality management in industry.

Contribution

It presents a novel, integrated metric for evaluating control software maturity in industrial settings, facilitating systematic reuse and quality improvement.

Findings

Validated in a top-ranked food packaging company

Confirmed benefits through expert evaluations

Improves management of control software quality

Abstract

automated Production Systems (aPS) are highly complex, mechatronic systems that usually have to operate reliably for many decades. Standardization and reuse of control software modules is a core prerequisite to achieve the required system quality in increasingly shorter development cycles. However, industrial case studies in the field of aPS show that many aPS companies still struggle with strategically reusing software. This paper proposes a metric-based approach to objectively measure the maturity of industrial IEC 61131-based control software in aPS (MICOSE4aPS) to identify potential weaknesses and quality issues hampering systematic reuse. Module developers in the machine and plant manufacturing industry can directly benefit as the metric calculation is integrated into the software engineering workflow. An in-depth industrial evaluation in a top-ranked machine manufacturing company in food packaging and an expert evaluation with different companies confirmed the benefit to efficiently manage the quality of control software.