Towards requisite integration of business development and mechatronics

Paper in proceeding, 2015

Mechatronics product development has been around for a long time. Yet the area is still assigned a large business potential and moreover many companies, especially SMEs, see a further business potential inherent in a more successful combination, or even integration of enabling technologies in systems for mechanical, computing, metrology, and control topics. But the challenges are not only involve combining technical systems, but also transforming them into products and to realisze business revenue. The aim of this paper is first to study a mechatronics SME company, its strategy, management and product development processes, and second what kind of integration is appropriate for mechatronics business. The theoretical approach is cross-disciplinary. It combines in a multidisciplinary manner contributions from mechatronics, product development, innovation management, business development, and management. The challenges of such a scientific juxtaposition is discussed and justified. The scientific areas complements each other, but also exhibit slight overlaps, enabling our analysis to commence identifying opportunities and barriers in mechatronics development.