The Potential of Low-Code Development in the Manufacturing Industry

Low-Code (Software) Development (LCD or LCSD) promises to reduce time-to-market, lower development costs, and make software development accessible to domain experts without software development training. By raising the level of abstraction beyond code through visual programming and model-driven development, a Low-Code Development Platform (LCDP) provides the tools to create software using the low-code approach. LCDPs typically support specific application types and domains such as web applications, mobile applications, data analytics platforms and dashboards. While some LCDPs exist for control systems in the manufacturing industry, this domain is not yet fully supported. In this paper, we present a multiple-case study based on five interviews to explore the role LCDPs can play in industrial automation. In particular, we investigate which use cases are considered relevant for LCDPs and what the actual requirements for such platforms are from an industrial perspective. Our results show that many different manufacturing use cases could be implemented by or already benefit from LCDPs. However, successful future LCDPs must meet certain industry-specific requirements.