Evaluation Model of Mechatronizability

Abstract

Competitiveness pushes companies to redefine their production units to offer multifunctional products. The integration of several functions requires the marriage of several disciplines of mechatronics that it is necessary to measure its dimension of integration. Because the problem of the designers or the professionals of the mechatronics is the one to know the level or the degree of the mechatronics which reflects equipment conceived or to be conceived for the market remains a necessity. This study seeks to understand the complexity of a mechatronic architecture to identify its constituents and define the parameters of a mechatronic system to estimate the mechatronizability of a product. After defining the utility and objectives of the metric, a methodology for the identification of the influential parameters and the formulation of the metric has been proposed. Drawing on the debatable achievements of the literature, four indicators were defined. In particular, the indicator of functional integration, dematerialization, complexity, and the general degree of mechatronics. These metrics of simple formulation were applied and validated on an electric pruning shear to estimate its mechatronic dimension. These metrics should allow manufacturers to simulate the mechatronic dimension of their production units and their competitive products.