Modular automation support system

An automation engineering support system comprising:

• a feedback processing component configured to modify the operation of one or more other components of the automation engineering support system based on user feedback;
• a pipeline generation engine configured to receive input data indicating at least one precondition and at least one postcondition of a required pipeline for a modular plant, and to generate a plurality of suggested module pipelines each comprising one or more modules capable of transforming the at least one precondition into the at least one postcondition;
• and
• a pipeline optimization component configured to rank the plurality of pipelines generated by the pipeline generation engine according to one or more predetermined criteria. wherein the feedback processing component is configured to receive the user feedback on the pipeline rankings provided by the pipeline optimization component and to use the user feedback to provide improved rankings of the pipelines subsequently generated by the pipeline generation engine, and wherein the feedback processing component is further configured to provide the user feedback and the generated pipelines to which the user feedback relates as training data to a machine learning model, to train the model using that training data, and to generate improved rankings using the trained model.