A method of classifying industrial assembly and packaging equipment

This paper outlines a novel method of classifying industrial assembly and packaging equipment and analyzes if mechatronics engineering is sufficient for the support of all of the equipment types throughout their complete lifecycle. It explains the requirement for a new equipment systems engineer role with an expanded number of subjects which integrates risk assessment, inspection systems and software validation functions, which must be applied to software centric equipment. The paper concludes by defining a skill set and expertise level, which should be incorporated into equipment systems engineer subjects to adequately support each of the equipment types. This refinement in skill set fundamentals is required in order to achieve optimum level of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).