Engineering education has been the subject of studies in search of approaches that provide better results in terms of learning. The Project Based Learning approach (PBL) is the subject of this study from the point of view of its application in Engineering. The objective is to present a classification and bibliometric analysis of PBL in Engineering. Publications on the subject were identified through queries at the journal databases at ISI Web of Science and Scopus SCImago between 2000 and 2016. The results highlight the benefits from the use of the PBL approach to learning in Engineering showing increased absorption of technical content by students and the development of soft and multi-disciplinary skills. The bibliometric analysis revealed the most relevant journals in the subject, authors and the most cited papers and keywords. New horizons to advance the use of PBL in engineering education are discussed.

Mechatronics as a science is a synergic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic control, and software design in product development and manufacturing processes. To understand how the field of knowledge that incorporates mechatronics in innovative products, given that it is not in itself a basic engineering discipline but an integration of fields of knowledge, has advanced, it was developed a bibliometric and qualitative study through systematic review with an analytical framework for the establishment of variables to subsidize the construction of the selected theoretical body. The results and conclusions of the sampled publications show that mechatronics performs one of the principal roles in innovation due to the multidisciplinary integration that the scope of innovation in product engineering is propitiating. The study classified five global scenarios: practical approaches aimed at product development, research that studies curricula and education in engineering, studies involving components of a mechatronic system, use of artificial intelligence, and methodologies for designing mechatronic systems. In addition to underscoring that the use of the term innovation associated with mechatronics in a large proportion of the publications extrapolates the operational level, characterizing an attribution to the term that is always associated with the applications, ramifications, and perspectives that the respective product, design, robot, or system could offer to the market or future research. Similarly, it was found that the results of many publications associate the term innovation with a return on investments or operational costs and emphasize the advantages of using the technology for commercial ends.

For complex new product development (NPD) projects, traditional planning techniques have failed in realistic planning. Consequently, project performance has poor results, despite the dissemination of project management knowledge. This research aims to investigate the relationship between product complexity and team seniority as planning parameters for the NPD project, exploring the effect on project performance. The research applies a system dynamics model for simulating the influence of these parameters on project performance, particularly relating schedule and scope dimensions. In this article, we compare the impact of different relations between product complexity and team seniority on three projects in order to test the method. Only the product primary functions must be taken into account for gathering data from product complexity, and team seniority must be known. Besides, the decision-maker applies a first-order linear model to a goal-seeking background to predict the project schedule for a specified product scope. The results show that the model predicts the project schedule performance with an error of less than 15%, as compared to the actual projects’ performance.

This paper proposes a new Readiness Model, 3D-CUBE, to assess the current state of manufacturing companies in the digital transformation context. Using a systematic literature review with 8-Steps-Search-Flow and a hypothetical-deductive framework (considering maturity as an 'input' enabler and not as an 'output'), the best information of 63 existing models was selected from 486 studies found in 10 databases. The 3D-CUBE was elaborated, with 3 dimensions (X = Organizational , Y = Technological , and Z = Process Maturity), 6 sub-dimensions, and 21 elements, including a scale 0-5 to assess the company readiness level. For the company’s Data Collection, a 3D-CUBE Questionnaire was developed, which provides a radar graph and calculates the company’s score with a readiness vector R=(X,Y,Z). Based on the existing model’s shortcoming, 3D-CUBE is a new contribution to this research stream, to help companies in getting ready for Industry 4.0. .

Este artigo apresenta o modelo de referência para o desenvolvimento de produtos mecatrônicos (MRM) enfatizando o trabalho de validação do modelo pela implantação de melhorias no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos (PDP) de uma empresa desenvolvedora. A aplicação e validação do modelo foi realizada por meio de uma pesquisa-ação. O conteúdo do modelo é sumarizado e sua metodologia de aplicação e validação é apresentada. As melhorias introduzidas aumentaram a capabilidade do PDP da empresa tanto na análise dos principais atores da implantação quanto para executores do processo não envolvidos na implementação. Estes últimos reportaram uma percepção de melhoria de indicadores de tempo, custo e qualidade do PDP. Os resultados mais significativos ocorreram no controle de documentos e configurações de produto e isso se deveu a aspectos regulatórios do mercado de equipamentos médicos. Embora tenha havido forte investimento em melhorias na área de gestão de projetos, seus resultados em controle de prazos e custos foram limitados por aspectos vinculados à integração entre as áreas de engenharia e marketing.