PPR Based Cost Estimation of Changes in Automated Production Systems

Automated production systems (aPS) are often in operation for several decades. During their lifetime they undergo various changes and modifications due to the varying customer requirement, market or technology environment. In order to keep the system development and maintenance process under control, it is extremely important to be able to assess the effect of a change on the system and its cost. This paper introduce an approach for cost estimation of change occurring to the aPS using process, product and resources viewpoint on the system together with the capability of the resources. The estimation of the cost is supported by reusing the previous changes cost and effort that are collected in a knowledge base. The approach is evaluated using a lab size industrial demonstrator.