Computer-aided process planning CAPP

S 1b; 2c; 4c; * 2.3c; 2.4b; 2.5c; 3.1c; 3.2b

Process planning activities generate the data for all production management
activities and are key elements in the manufacturing process. It affects all
110 manufacturing methods 99

factory activities, such as company competitiveness, production planning,

production efficiency, and product quality. It plays a major part in determining
the cost of components and is the crucial link between design and
manufacturing.
Process planning is the function that establishes which machining processes
and parameters are to be used to convert a product drawing and idea into
a product, to convert each item from its raw material form to a final form.
Alternatively, process planning could be defined as the act of preparing
detailed work instructions to produce a part. The process planning is frequently
called an operation sheet, routine sheet, and other similar names. In a conventional
production system, an expert human process planner, who examines the
item and then determines the appropriate procedures to produce it, creates a
process.
Traditional production management regards the process plan as unalterable.
Therefore, the method by which the process plan was generated, or the time
that it took, was of no importance to the production management activity. The
objectives of the computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system were:
1. to optimize the process planning task as a stand alone activity;
2. to reduce the skill required of a process planner;
3. to reduce the process planning time;
4. to reduce both process planning and manufacturing cost;
5. to create more consistent process plans;
6. to produce more accurate process plans;
7. to increase productivity
The development of CAPP systems has undergone several stages of improvement.
In the following, the gradual development of computer-aided process
planning is reviewed.
CAPP stage 1: The computer is utilized to assist the process planner with clerical
work, leaving him free for technical work. The idea is to divide the work
between the process planner and the computer, letting each perform the task
they know best.
CAPP stage 2: Variant approach. The variant approach to process planning is
to examine a part drawing, identify similar parts produced in the past (usually
from memory, or from a filing cabinet) examine process plans for these
similar parts and adapt or modify them to suit the specific part on hand. The
variant approach is derived from group technology (GT) methods where parts
are classified and coded into families. The classification task is