Unleashing digital engineering for high-configurational systems: A taxonomy for developing digital engineering platforms

The significance of digital servitization in the industrial engineering domain is becoming increasingly apparent. A significant number of component and system manufacturers are attempting to incorporate digital services and products into their existing product portfolios with the aim of enhancing customer value. A promising avenue for exploration is the combination of digital engineering approaches with digital platforms, which could result in creating a digital engineering platform. However, the solution space for designing digital engineering platforms is wide, increasing the complexity for industrial organizations to choose the right configuration. To cope with this complexity in the conception phase, this paper presents a configurable model in the form of a taxonomy for such a platform, developed on the basis of a systematic literature review and demonstrated by applying it in a case study with a component and system manufacturer in the field of vacuum handling technology. The taxonomy aims to systematize the different design options for digital engineering platforms and simplify the selection of an adequate platform configuration. The results further help advance the understanding of digital platform configurations to support the digital engineering of highly configurable systems and their servitization.