A survey on test and piloting practices within the engineering of industrial machines and facilities

In mechatronics engineering the execution of experiments and tests is an important activity during development of new products and maintenance of released products. Planning and execution of experiments and tests is an essential cost and time factor. To keep the development time short it is necessary to have well-managed processes in the test department and to plan, organize, source out or execute, and document tests and experiments in an efficient and effective way. This paper contains the results of a general survey identifying existing practices, used methods and tools in industry concerning testing and piloting. Seven large-scale companies situated in Upper-Austria took part in this survey. The survey concentrates on established test processes and practices, usage of publicly available test methods, and (re)use of self-developed tests methods. Furthermore, applied practices for documentation of test results, test setup data, and used software/tools for test planning, execution, documentation, and storage were investigated in the survey. The results of the survey show established practices and possible improvement areas for test departments in industrial mechatronics engineering context.