Requirements on engineering tools for increasing reuse in industrial automation

Motivated by increasing demands for efficiency, reuse approaches have been increasingly gaining significance during the last years. System engineering shifted from single systems to product lines. Although the engineering paradigm changed, industrial automation systems within a product line are created with the same engineering tools as single systems. Hence, it becomes relevant to analyze which requirements engineering tools shall fulfill in order to increase reuse within a product line of industrial automation systems. The identified requirements are interesting for the following reasons: first, they are relevant for developers of engineering tools, since they aim to provide competitive products. Second, they are relevant for developers of industrial automation systems, since they reuse existing artifacts in designing new industrial automation systems with the help of engineering tools. Third, the topic is interesting for researchers and practitioners in the field of product line engineering for industrial automation systems who want to know which aspects are already supported by current engineering tools.