(1) Process Planning Products and their components are designed to perform certain specific functions.

Every product has some design specifications which ensure its functionality aspects. The task of manufacturing is to produce components such that they meet design specifications. Process planning acts as a bridge between design and manufacturing by translating design specifications into manufacturing process details. It refers to a set of instructions that are used to make a component or a part so that the design specifications are met, therefore it is major determinant of manufacturing cost and profitability of products. Process planning answers the questions regarding required information and activities involved in transforming raw materials into a finished product. The process starts with the selection of raw material and ends with the completion of part. The development of process plans involves mainly a set of following activities;

Analysis of part requirements Selection of raw workpiece Selection of manufacturing operations and their sequences Selection of machine tools Selection of tools, tool holding devices, work holding devices and inspection equipments Selection of manufacturing conditions i.e. cutting speed, feed and depth of cut. Determination of manufacturing times

(2) The manual experience-based planning method The manual experience-based process planning is most widely used. It is mainly based on a manufacturing engineer's experience and knowledge of production facilities, equipment, their capabilities, processes, and tooling. The major problem with this approach is that it is time consuming and developed plans may not be consistent and optimum. The feasibility of developed process plan is dependant on many factors such as availability of machine tools, scheduling and machine allocation etc. Computer aided process planning is developed to overcome this problems to some extent (3) Computer Aided Process Planning As mentioned in article 39.1, the primary purpose of process planning is to translate the design requirements into manufacturing process details. This suggests a system in which design information is processed by the process planning system to generate manufacturing process details. CAPP integrates and optimizes system performance into the inter-organizational flow. For example, when one changes the design, it must be able to fall back on CAPP module to generate manufacturing process and cost estimates for these design changes. Similarly, in case of machine breakdown on the shop floor, CAPP must generate the alternative actions so that most economical solution can be adopted in the given situation. A typical CAPP frame-work is shown in figure 39.1.

Figure 39.1 A Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) frame-work

When comapred with manual experience-based process planning, CAPP offers following advantages;

Systematic developemnt of accurate and consistent process plans Reduction of cost and lead time of process planning Reduced skill requirements of process planners Increased productivity of process planners Higher level application progams such as cost and manufacturing lead time estimation and work standards can be interfaced

Two major methods are used in computer aided process planning; the variant CAPP method and the generative CAPP method (3.1) The variant CAPP method In variant CAPP approach, a process plan for a new part is created by recalling, identifying and retrieving an existing plan for a similar part and making necessary modifications for the new part. Sometimes, the process plans are developed for parts representing a fmily of parts called 'master parts'. The similiarities in design attributes and manufacturing methods are exploited for the purpose of formation of part families. A number of methods have been developed for part family formation using coding and classification schemes of group technology (GT), similiarity-coefficient based algorithms and mathematical programming models.

The variant process planning approach can be realized as a four step process; 1. Definition of coding scheme 2. Grouping parts into part families 3. Development of a standard process plan 4. Retrieval and modification of standard process plan A number of variant process planning schemes have been developed and are in use. One of the most widely used CAPP system is CAM-I developed by McDonnell-Douglas Automation Company. This system can be used to generate process plan for rotational, prismatic and sheet-metal parts.

3.2 The generative CAPP method The next stage of evolution is towards generative CAPP. In the generative CAPP, process plans are generated by means of decision logic, formulas, technology algorithms and geometry based data to perform uniquely many processing decisions for converting part from raw material to finished state. There are two major components of generative CAPP; a geometry based coding scheme and process knowledge in form of decision logic data. The geometry based coding scheme defines all geometric features for process related surfaces together with feature dimensions, locations, tolerances and the surface finish desired on the features. The level of detail is much greater in a generative system than a variant system. For example, details such as rough and finished states of the parts and process capability of machine tools to transform these parts to the desired states are provided. Process knowledge in form of in the form of decision logic and data matches the part geometry requirements with the manufacturing capabilities using knowledge base. It includes selection of processes, machine tools, jigs or fixtures, tools, inspection equipments and sequencing operations. Development of manufacturing knowledge base is backbone of generative CAPP. The tools that are widely used in development of this database are flow-charts, decision tables, decision trees, iterative algorithms, concept of unit machined surfaces, pattern recognition techniques and artificial intelligence techniques such as expert system shells. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Definition Technological advances are reshaping the face of manufacturing, creating paperless manufacturing environments in which computer automated process planning (CAPP) will play a preeminent role. The two reasons for this effect are: Costs are declining, which encourages partnerships between CAD and CAPP developers and access to manufacturing data is becoming easier to accomplish in multivendor environments. This is primarily due to increasing use of LANs; IGES and the like are facilitating transfer of data from one point to another on the network; and relational databases (RDBs) and associated structured query language (SQL) allow distributed data processing and data access. With the introduction of computers in design and manufacturing, the process planning part needed to be automated. The shop trained people who were familiar with the details of machining and other processes were gradually retiring and these people would be unavailable in the future to do process planning. An alternative way of accomplishing this function was needed and Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) was the alternative. Computer aided process planning was usually considered to be a part of computer aided manufacturing. However computer aided manufacturing was a stand alone system. In fact a synergy results when CAM is combined with CAD to create a CAD/CAM. In such a system CAPP becomes the direct connection between design and manufacturing.

Moreover, the reliable knowledge based computer-aided process planning application MetCAPP software looks for the least costly plan capable of producing the design and continuously generates and evaluates the plans until it is evident that non of the remaining plans will be any better than the best one seen so far. The goal is to find a useful reliable solution to a real manufacturing problem in a safer environment. If alternate plans exist, rating including safer conditions is used to select the best plans

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Frederick Winslow Taylor, the famous efficiency standard engineer, who figured out that to improve manufacturing time you must first have a plan. In some part, his actions influenced the beginnings of proving that a shop with a plan will do better than one with none. The name for this process planning is called Manufacturing Process Planning. Its been around since the early 1900s. In the computer world, its known as CAPP (Computer-Aided Process Planning.) Many articles have been written prescribing different estimating methods for producing the manufacturing process

Real world example of A CAPP software developed by MTI systems inc.

There are only four steps to this process planning system: 1. The user enters the part information such as part number and material type. Machining data such as speeds and feeds, tooling and fixturing, material type, handling time, tool life, gauging, machinability, pf&d (personal fatigue and delay) are automatically calculated in the background. 2. The user selects the work centers to be used to create the part in the process plan. Processes like CNC Machining, Turning, Laser, Grinding, Press Brake and Inspection are just a few of the equipment and processes available in the system. As the user selects the operations, the program begins the development of calculating manufacturing times. Operation sheets with graphics are attached to each operation as needed. 3. The user reviews the detail of each operations such as tooling requirements, number of passes, cutting distances, and handling standards such as load/unload, indicate and more. 4. Lastly, the user can drag and drop operations within the same plan or even drag and drop between plans on the screen. This feature enables the user to have multiple plans at the same time for convenience and speed. Once satisfied with the results, the user can now print or send the plan wherever needed. The program just described was developed by MTI Systems, Inc who continues to implement this cost estimating and process planning software system in companies around the globe.