An empirical study on the usage of agile methods in the mechatronics industry

Increasing usage of mechatronics systems into different applications such as manufacturing system, home appliances with IoT, digital twin and many more, demands an efficient product development method for mechatronics products. As agile product development is known for its efficiency and flexibility in the software industry, research to implement the same approach in the mechatronics industry was more than a necessity. This research unveils the views on the mechatronics product development methods with the help of semi-structured interviews and survey. It explains the use of agile methods as per the need of the industry and in the context of mechatronics product development. Many important aspects have been surfaced such as important phases of mechatronics product development for use of agile method along with involvement of different stakeholders, its benefits, pain points while using agile method and a need of incorporating virtual prototyping into the process. With these results, conceptualization of a hybrid approach could proceed in the right direction.