Integration of a formalized process description into MS Visio with regard to an integrated engineering process

This paper describes an improvement of the engineering process of automated plants by combining information of the technical process and plant structure. Integrating a semi-formal process description in MS Visio for the requirements engineering phases and using these planning results throughout the engineering process can be an approach for an integrated engineering. By linking the semi-formal process description with a plant structure description in AutomationML the engineering efficiency can be increased. The potential, arising through the presented approach, is shown by an example from the engineering of a hot strip mill. The requirements have been modeled within the MS Visio implementation; these results can then be used for a consistent observance of the stated requirements on the technical resources that have to be engineered