The requirements of reliability of technical systems have extremly increased over the last years and due to the complexity of those systems it becomes more and more difficult to fulfil them. New approaches are developed to face and handle this problems and one of these approaches is the Systems Engineering method. The technical system on which this thesis is based on is the plain bearing, which is used for crankshaft bearing in combustion engines. In order to better integrate the requirements, structur and behaviour of a plain bearing into the development process a descriptive model for processing this information is very helpful. This model is the base for a recommendation system and is intended to support the further system development. The leading questions for the development of such a model are the identification of all input parameters and the relevant output parameters. The description method for the plain bearing is the top-down approach. This approach ends up in a structured description of a plain bearing and links all requirements and functions with the specific system component. An interaction with the system’s environment is also considered. The model contains the basic structure of a plain bearing, the requirements placed on the materials, the system itself and the user for a proper usage and a description of the operating states. The derived tool recommends after an analysis of an engine and the description with parameters possible plain bearing types for the specific use case. The key component of this recommendation system is the on experience-based assessment matrix. The input parameters for the recommendation tool are linked with the specific failure modes of plain bearings. For a recommendation the rated failure modes are compared with specific bearing properties. This tool, which links experience from design, simulation and mechanical development, enables an initial rough assessment of an engine in an early development stage on the basis of plain bearing properties. A rating leads to a recommendation of a bearing type or shows possible problems of the power unit, which can be influenced in the further development. The assessment matrix was verified with a locomotive diesel engine and a heavy gas engine and provided the expected answers. The assessment tool requires an open discussion for a recommendation and improves the further development.