Industry Voices on Software Engineering Challenges in Cyber-Physical Production Systems Engineering

Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs) are envisioned as next-generation adaptive production systems combining modern production techniques with the latest information technology. A CPPS creates a complex environment between different domains (mechanical, electrical, software engineering), requiring multidisciplinary solutions to tackle growing complexity issues and reduce (maintenance) effort. Software plays an increasingly important role in assuring an effective and efficient operation of CPPSs. However, software engineering methods applied for CPPSs seem to lag behind modern software engineering methods, where tremendous progress has been made in the last years. We initiated the Software Engineering in Cyber-Physical Production Systems Workshop (SECPPS-WS) to analyze and overcome this gap. After two instances with mostly academic participants, we conducted a full-day workshop with nine industry representatives from eight companies that develop and maintain CPPSs. Each industry representative presented their current work and challenges. We collected these challenges and condensed a categorized list of challenges backed by industry statements and literature. This paper presents the resulting list and pointers to (partial) solutions to offer guidance for academia and identify promising research opportunities in this area.