Process Planning

In companies, planning processes can result in increased output, higher precision, and faster turnaround
for vital business tasks. A process is described as a set of steps that result in a specific outcome. It
converts input into output. Process planning is also called manufacturing planning, material processing,
process engineering, and machine routing. It is the act of preparing detailed work instructions to produce
a part. It is a complete description of specific stages in the production process. Process planning
determines how the product will be produced or service will be provided. Process planning converts
design information into the process steps and instructions to powerfully and effectively manufacture
products. As the design process is supported by many computer-aided tools, computer-aided process
planning (CAPP) has evolved to make simpler and improve process planning and realize more effectual
use of manufacturing resources.Buy These Notes in PDFFormat
Process Planning

It has been documented that process planning is required for new product and services. It is the base for
designing factory buildings, facility layout and selecting production equipment. It also affects the job
design and quality control.
Objective of Process Planning: The chief of process planning is to augment and modernize the business
methods of a company. Process planning is planned to renovate design specification into manufacturing
instructions and to make products within the function and quality specification at the least possible costs.
This will result in reduced costs, due to fewer staff required to complete the same process, higher
competence, by eradicating process steps such as loops and bottlenecks, greater precision, by including
checkpoints and success measures to make sure process steps are completed precisely, better
understanding by all employees to fulfil their department objectives. Process planning deals with the
selection of the processes and the determination of conditions of the processes. The particular operations
and conditions have to be realised in order to change raw material into a specified shape. All the

1
specifications and conditions of operations are included in the process plan. The process plan is a
certificate such as engineering drawing. Both the engineering drawing and the process plan present the
fundamental document for the manufacturing of products. Process planning influences time to market and
productions cost. Consequently the planning activities have immense importance for competitive
advantage.
Effect of process planning on competitive advantage:

Principles of Process Planning

General principles for evaluating or enhancing processes are as follows:

1. First define the outputs, and then look toward the inputs needed to achieve those outputs.
2. Describe the goals of the process, and assess them frequently to make sure they are still
appropriate. This would include specific measures like quality scores and turnaround times.
3. When mapped, the process should appear as a logical flow, without loops back to earlier steps or
departments.
4. Any step executed needs to be included in the documentation. If not, it should be eliminated or
documented, depending on whether or not it's necessary to the process.
5. People involved in the process should be consulted, as they often have the most current
information.

Process planning includes the activities and functions to develop a comprehensive plans and instructions
to produce a part. The planning starts with engineering drawings, specifications, parts or material lists and
a forecast of demand. The results of the planning are routings which specify operations, operation
sequences, work centres, standards, tooling and fixtures. This routing becomes a major input to the
manufacturing resource planning system to define operations for production activity control purposes and
define required resources for capacity requirements planning purposes.
Process plans which characteristically offer more detailed, step-by-step work instructions including
dimensions linked to individual operations, machining parameters, set-up instructions, and quality
assurance checkpoints. Process plans results in fabrication and assembly drawings to support manufacture
and annual process planning is based on a manufacturing engineer's experience and knowledge of

2
production facilities, equipment, their capabilities, processes, and tooling. But process planning is very
lengthy and the results differ based on the person doing the planning.
Major steps in process planning: Process planning has numerous steps to complete the project that
include the definition, documentation, review and improvement of steps in business processes used in a
company.
Definition: The first step is to describe what the process should accomplish. It includes queries like, what
is the output of this process? Who receives the output, and how do they define success?, What are the
inputs for the process?, Are there defined success measures in place - such as turnaround time or quality
scores? And Are there specific checkpoints in the process that need to be addressed?
Documentation: During the documentation stage, interviews are conducted with company personnel to
determine the steps and actions they take as part of a specific business process. The results of these
interviews is written down, generally in the form of a flow chart, with copies of any forms used or
attached. These flow charts are given to the involved departments to review, to make sure information has
been correctly captured in the chart.
Review: Next, the flow charts are reviewed for potential problem areas.
Process planning in manufacturing may include the following activities:

1. Selection of raw-stock,
2. Determination of machining methods,
3. Selection of machine tools,
4. Selection of cutting tools,
5. Selection or design of fixtures and jigs,
6. Determination of set-up,
7. Determination of machining sequences,
8. Calculations or determination of cutting conditions,
9. Calculation and planning of tool paths,
10. Processing the process plan

PROCESS PLANNING STEPS

o Study the overall shape of the part. Use this information to classify the part and
determine the type of workstation needed.
o Thoroughly study the drawing. Try to identify every manufacturing features and notes.
o If raw stock is not given, determine the best raw material shape to use.
o Identify datum surfaces. Use information on datum surfaces to determine the setups.
o Select machines for each setup.
o For each setup determine the rough sequence of operations necessary to create all the
features.
o Sequence the operations determined in the previous step.
o Select tools for each operation. Try to use the same tool for several operations if it is
possible. Keep in mind the trade off on tool change time and estimated machining time.
o Select or design fixtures for each setup.
o Evaluate the plan generate thus far and make necessary modifications.
o Select cutting parameters for each operation.
o Prepare the final process plan document.

3
Role of Process Planning:
Process planning encompasses the activities and functions to prepare a detailed set of plans and
instructions to produce a part. The planning begins with engineering drawings, specifications, parts or
material lists and a forecast of demand. The results of the planning are:
 Routings which specify operations, operation sequences, work centers, standards, tooling and
fixtures.This routing becomes a major input to the manufacturing resource planning system to
define operations for production activity control purposes and define required resources for
capacity requirements planning purposes.
 Process plans which typically provide more detailed,step-by-step work instructions including
dimensions related to individual operations, machining parameters, set-up instructions, and
quality assurance checkpoints.
 Fabrication and assembly drawings to support manufacture (as opposed to engineering drawings
to define the part).
Manual process planning is based on a manufacturing engineer’s experience and knowledge of production
facilities,equipment, their capabilities, processes, and tooling. Process planning is very time-consuming
and the results vary based on the person doing the planning.

Feature Recognition:
As we have seen that CAPP system usually serve as link in integrating the CAD and CAM. However, it is
only the partial link due to lack of part feature information provided by existing CAD/ Drafting system.
Part feature information is an essential data for CAPP. In other words, it is a tedious job for CAPP to
understand the three dimensional geometry of the designed part from CAD system in terms of their
engineering meaning related to assembly and manufacturing. Generally, all CAPP planning method and
systems suffered from such type of problem and is referred as feature recognition in CAPP. Hence,
objective of feature recognition is to bridge the gap between the database and automated process planning
systems by automatically distinguishing the feature of a part from the geometry and topological data
stored in the CAD system. The essence of feature recognition can easily be understood by taking an
example as shown in Figure 9.6. This figure is defined by a constructive solid geometry tree that
represents a block primitive and a cylinder primitive combined by the Boolean operator “-”. Shape and
dimension can easily be identified by these schemes but, some higher level information is not provided by
this scheme such as, whether the hole is blind hole or through hole. Such types of information are called
as feature. Hence, features play a vital role in CAPP. In order to identify features and to solve CAD /
CAPP interface problem, feature recognition is one of the most efficient technique. Feature recognition
transforms a general CAD model into an application specific feature model.
In general, a generic part feature recognition system must be able to resolve following issues.
(i) Extract design information of a part.
(ii) Identify all surfaces of part.
(iii) Recognize reasons about\and\or interpret these surfaces in terms of Part features.
Once the features are classified, the automated planning system could develop the required process plan
to make the part and hence, eliminate the need for a human to translate the CAD data into something that
process planning system can understand. Here, it is pertinent to mention that feature recognition is not
only applicable to CAPP system but it can also be applied to various other engineering applications that
require information about feature of parts classification and automated coding in GT.

4
Difficulties of FEATURE RECOGNITION:
• Potentially large number of features.
• Features are domain and user specific.
• Lack of a theory in features.
• Input geometric model specific. Based on incomplete models.
• Computational complexity of the algorithms.
• Existing algorithms are limited to simple features.
Types of Process Planning Systems:
The types are: 1. Manual Process Planning 2. Automated Process Planning 3. Generative Process Planing.
Type # 1. Manual Process Planning:
This type of planning is known as man-variant process planning and is the commonest type of planning
used for production today.
Planning the operations to be used to produce a part requires knowledge of two groups of
variables:
i) The part requirements (as indicated by an engineering drawing) and,
(ii) The available machines and processes, and the capabilities of each process.
Given these variables, the planner selects the combination of processes required to produce a finished
part. In selecting this combination of processes, a number of criteria are employed. Production cost or
time are usually the dominant criteria in process selection; however, machine utilization and routing often
affect the plans chosen.
In general, the process planner tries to select the best set of processes and machines to produce a whole
family of parts rather than just a single part.
Type # 2. Automated Process Planning:
Man-variant process planning (at times) becomes a boring and tedious job. It produces erroneous process
plans. This, coupled with the labor intensity of man-variant planning, has led many industries to
investigate the automation of process planning.
A completely automated process planning system would eliminate all human effort between the
preparation of an engineering drawing and a complete process plan for every manufacturing operation.
Schematically, the system would correspond to Fig 6.9(a).
The block labeled LOGIC would include the capability to scan and interpret the drawing, to convert this
information into process requirements and to select machines, tools and operations to yield an
economically acceptable product. Such a system would be truly automated. Self-contained logic would
check for contradictory requirements on the engineering drawing.
These requirements would be checked for compatibility with available processes. Selection of the
processes (such as turning, milling or stamping) would be based on product requirements, quantities

5
ordered and process capabilities. Whenever contradictory or incompatible requirements were detected, a
printed message would indicate the source of the problem and recommend remedial action.
A less automated system is shown in Fig. 6.9 (b). This system needs human assistance to code the
engineering drawing data. Thereafter, the system is fully automated. In Fig. 6.9 (c), a still less automated
system is shown. For this arrangement, a man must select the process as well as interpret and code the
drawing information.

Many developments in computer-aided process planning have focused on eliminating the process planner
from the entire planning function. Computer-aided process planning can reduce some of the decision
making required during a planning process.
Advantages of computer-aided process planning
(a) It can reduce the process planning time.
(b) It can reduce the skill required of a planner.
(c) It can create more consistent plans.
(d) It can produce more accurate plans.
(e) It can increase productivity.
(f) It can reduce both process planning and manufacturing costs.

6
Benefits from computer-aided process planning have been documented by several industries. Such
systems can reduce planning time from days to hours or from hours to minutes.
Type # 3. Generative Process Planning:
Generative process planning may be defined as a system that synthesizes process information in order to
create a process plan for a new component automatically. Process plans are created from information
available in a manufacturing database with little or no human intervention.
Upon receiving the design model, the system can generate the required operations sequence for the
component. Knowledge of manufacturing must be captured and encoded into efficient software. By
applying decision logic, a process planner’s decision-making process can be imitated. Other planning
functions, such as machine selection, tool selection, process optimization, and so on, can also be
automated using generative planning techniques.
Decisions on process selection, process sequencing, and so on, are all made by the system. However,
transforming component data and decision rules into a computer-readable format is still a major obstacle
to be overcome before generative planning systems become operational.
Generative method of process planning:
The generative method of process planning essentially consists of four steps:
(1) Describe a part in detail.
(2) Describe a catalog of processes available to produce parts.
(3) Describe the machine tool(s) that can perform these processes.
(4) Create the software to inspect the part, process, and available machinery to determine whether all
three are compatible.
Advantages of generative process planning:
(a) It can generate consistent process plans rapidly.
(b) New components can be planned as easily as existing components.
(c) It can potentially be interfaced with an automated manufacturing facility to provide detailed and up-to-
date control information.

Computer Aided Process Planning

Manufacturers have been following an evolutionary step to improve and computerize process planning in
the following five stages:
Stage I - Manual classification; standardized process plans
Stage II - Computer maintained process plans
Stage III - Variant CAPP
Stage IV - Generative CAPP
Stage V - Dynamic, generative CAPP
Earlier to CAPP, producers attempted to triumph over the issues of manual process planning by basic
categorization of parts into families and developing standardized process plans for parts families that is
called
Stage I. When a new part is initiated, the process plan for that family would be manually recovered,
marked-up and retyped. While this improved output but it did not enhance the quality of the planning of
processes.

7
Computer-aided process planning originally developed as a device to electronically store a process plan
once it was shaped, recover it, amend it for a new part and print the plan. It is called
Stage II. Other ability of this stage is table-driven cost and standard estimating systems.
Stage III: Computer-aided approach of variant CAPP is based on a Group Technology coding and
classification approach to recognize huge number of part attributes or parameters. These attributes permit
the system to choose a baseline process plan for the part family and achieve about ninety percent of the
planning work. The schemer will add the remaining ten percent of the effort modifying or fine-tuning the
process plan. The baseline process plans stored in the computer are manually entered using a super
planner concept that is, developing standardized plans based on the accumulated experience and
knowledge of multiple planners and manufacturing engineers.
Stage IV: It is generative CAPP. In this stage, process planning decision rules are developed into the
system. These decision rules will work based on a part's group technology or features technology coding
to produce a process plan that will require minimal manual interaction and modification.
While CAPP systems move towards being generative, a pure generative system that can create a complete
process plan from part classification and other design data is a goal of the future. These types of
generative system will utilize artificial intelligence type capabilities to produce process plans as well as be
fully integrated in a CIM environment. An additional step in this stage is dynamic, generative CAPP
which would consider plant and machine capacities, tooling availability, work center and equipment
loads, and equipment status in developing process plans.
The process plan developed with a CAPP system at Stage V would differ in due course depending on the
resources and workload in the factory. Dynamic, generative CAPP also entails the need for online display
of the process plan on a work order oriented basis to cover that the appropriate process plan was provided
to the floor.
There are numerous advantages of this type of process planning. It can decrease the skill required of a
planner. It can reduce the process planning time. It can reduce both process planning and manufacturing
cost. It can create more consistent plans. It can produce more accurate plans. It can increase productivity.
Automated process planning is done for shortening the lead-time, manufacturability feedback, lowering
the production cost and consistent process plans. Advantages of Computer-aided Process Planning
include reduced demand on the skilled planner, reduced process planning time, reduced process planning
and manufacturing cost, created more consistent plans, produced accurate plans, increased productivity,
increased high flexibility, attained high efficiency, attained adequate high product quality and possibility
of integration with the other automated functions and systems.
Manufacturing Process Planning delivers essential process planning potential for all manufacturing
industries. Using Manufacturing Process Planning, process planners can powerfully create and
authenticate the original process plan using the product structure from product engineering, modify the
plan to specific requirements, and link products and resources to the steps of the plan.
To summarize, Process Planning is important action in a production enterprise that verifies which
processes, materials, and instructions will be used to produce a product. Process planning describes a
manufacturing facility, processes and parameters which are to be used to change materials from a primary
form to a predetermined final stage.

Conventional Process Planning versus CAPP

To manually plan processes for complicated parts, the process planners must be quite experienced
persons. A Process planner usually spends considerable time to plan a process and complete the process
documents depending the complexity of the part. It is thus evident that the development of a CAPP for the

8
prismatic components is even more meaningful. The aim of Computer Aided Process Planning is to
eliminate or at least reduce the manual intervention in process planning.

The advantage ofCAPP over conventional process planning is manifold.

> It improves the quality and consistency ofprocess plans.

> Savings in lead time: In today’s concepts of TQM and batch manufacturing lead time seriously effects
the delivery time of the product which plays a major role in deciding the market share of any company.

> Process rationalisation: CAPP generated process plan is more likely to be consistent (because the use of
same software for all plants), logical and optimal (because the company has presumably incorporated the
experience and judgement of its best manufacturing people into process planning software and computer
can evaluate more number of alternatives in a less time).

> Integration with manufacturing support functions: These functions involve NC part program
generation, computerised work standards etc., If done independently these functions involve duplication
of clerical work.

> Increases the efficiency ofprocess planning.

> Decreases the variety oftooling.

> Error reduction: Helps in overcoming the casual errors committed by human process planners. If the
error goes unnoticed, it penalises heavily from the cost point of view.

> It can reduce the skill required by planners.

> It can increase productivity.

> It can consider all available equipment while process planning. Nobel (1965) first discussed the use of
computers in process planning.

Early investigation of automated process planning was done at Purdue University by Scheck (1966) and
by Berra and Barash (1969). Many investigations were updated in the late seventies, and research work
gained momentum in eighties. CAPP is the application of computers to assist the human process planner
in process planning function. In its lowest form it will reduce the time and effort required for preparing
process plans and providing more consistent process plan. An advanced CAPP will provide the automated
interface between CAD and CAM. Automated process planning makes use of CAD model as input to the
system. The subject of features and their role in product design, process planning and many other
activities spanning the product life cycle is playing a vital role in today's technology. Already work has
been carried out on Feature Extraction using Attribute Adjacency Graph (AAG) method at PSG College
of Technology. This method extracts simple polyhedral features like slot, step, etc. But it fails to extracts
V slots, T slots, curved features and complex features. One of the widely used CAD/CAM packages,
CADDS5, has been used in the development of this package. Even if the component is modeled in other
modeling packages, we can use this software by adding a simple routine which will convert the part
internal representation in that package into linked lists of Faces, Edges and Vertices whose structures are
defined in the software.

9
 Generative CAPP System:
A system which automatically synthesizes a process plan for a new component is called Generative
Computer Aided Process Planning. It synthesizes the process information to create a process plan for a
new part automatically without human intervention. This post mainly focuses on what is the Structure and
Advantages of Generative Generative Computer Aided Process Planning(G CAPP) in a detailed manner.

Characteristics of Generative Computer Aided Process Planning(G CAPP):

 No existing standard plans
 Able to generate process plans for both new and existing parts
 Process plans are generated by means of
Decision logic
Formulas
Technology algorithms
Geometry based data
Geometry-based coding scheme
Process knowledge in the form of decision logic and data
to perform uniquely the main decisions for converting apart from raw materials to a
finished state.
A requirement of Generative Computer Aided Process Planning:
•Part description
–Part to be produced must be clearly and precisely defined in a computer compatible format
(OPITZ,AUTAP)
•Manufacturing databases
The logic of manufacturing must be identified and captured
The captured logic must be incorporated in a unified manufacturing database
•Decision making logic and algorithms
Decision trees
Expert Systems: AI-based approaches
Decision Tables in Generative CAPP:
 A decision table program structuring tool provides readable documentation as an automatic by product
 A decision table is portioned into conditions and actions
 Can be used with pre-processor to eliminate some program coding to provide automatic checks for
completeness, contradiction, and redundancy.
Decision automation is the use of software to automatically make choices in business. It is distinct from a
decision support system because the software can actually make decisions instead of just offering
information to humans who then make decisions. Decision automation makes choices based on
preprogrammed business rules. Decision automation differs from decision support systems because the

10
 software actually makes the decisions. With a decision support system, the software presents a human
executive with the relevant information, but he or she actually makes the choice.
Decision automation systems make choices based on business rules, often using Bayesian logic. The
system learns from its successes and failures. Automated decision making is well-suited to areas where
there is a predetermined range of good outcomes and where good decisions are predictable. These include
manufacturing, petroleum refining, healthcare and finance.
First, decision logic (policy rules, formulas, thresholds, regulatory mandates, and other elements used to
make decisions) traditionally has been hard-coded into operational systems. As a result, development is
time-consuming and costly. Developers have to translate business requirements ("If this condition is
encountered, respond in this manner") into abstract representations in programming. This is a laborious
process full of possibilities for error through misinterpretation. Developers have to try to anticipate all
possible requirements and conditions because any changes after deployment could affect other parts of the
program and require unraveling a good part of their work. Businesspeople requesting a change usually
have to wait weeks or even months for the change to be coded and deployed, and because the hard-coded
decision logic is buried in a system, it must be written (and rewritten) for each new platform or channel.
In addition, decision logic is difficult to understand. Because it's lodged in application programming code,
business managers often have difficulty saying exactly how decisions are made. Different programmers
might have coded layer after layer of policies and other types of rules in various ways. Some companies
have tens of thousands of rules coded into their systems, including many that are irrelevant because
they're based on market conditions and business requirements that no longer exist. Also, as organizations
have moved from proprietary programs and applications to packaged applications from independent
software vendors, the range of available decision rules and criteria has shrunk to those that could be
"configured" with software system tools and workbenches.
Second, good decision making requires insight, especially into the probability of specific outcomes.
Retail banking and other credit-extending companies have used this type of analysis extensively in
automated decision systems. These "predictive analytics" are equally valuable—and still largely unused—
for decision making in other industries. Business managers who want to bring predictive models into their
decision processes might be daunted by the complexity of the data and analysis, however. Additionally,
there's the impact of analytics deployments on IT resources. Predictive analytics, like decision logic, must
be programmed into application code.
Third, although many companies can capture data from front-line systems and have invested heavily in
data warehouses to store it, too much time might go by before they draw insights from the data. Most
companies, in fact, often operate on stale data, partly because of what must be done to turn the data into a
form useful for gaining insight.
Massive investment in business intelligence (BI) and data warehouse technology has undoubtedly helped
management understand the impact of their decisions and detect trends in their business. What this
technology hasn't done is improve the way employees and information systems that interact with
customers make operational, front-line decisions. The purpose of using BI is to put it in the hands of
people who can use analytic and business operations skills to understand what it's telling them. No matter
how much visualization or smarts are embedded in these tools, they remain focused on knowledge
workers who aren't the people making most of the decisions involved in day-to-day operations. These
decisions are made by customer service representatives, counter staff, drivers, Web sites, or telephone
support staff.

Techniques for Generative Computer Aided Process Planning(G CAPP)

 Identify the machinable volume and attach necessary technological details relevant for mfg.
 Do a preliminary sorting of pockets in order of levels that clearly indicate the likely sequence in the final
process plan
 Examine the pocket for any possibility of combining so that the machining operations could be reduced
 Select the machine tools that can be used for each of the identified pockets

11
 Identify the process sequence required for the machining of the pocket based on the technological
requirements
 For each of the pocket and the operation decided, select the cutting tool required.
 Sort the operations on the basis of the machine tools and cutting tools.
 Sequence the operations on the basis of the machine tools and cutting tools by making use of heuristic
rules
 Evaluate the machining time and idle time and select the final process plan based on the lowest cost and
machining time
 Present the final results in a suitable form.

Knowledge-based Process Planning

The main forces behind to apply knowledge-based (KB) techniques for CAPP is the requirement of large
amount of human expertise in CAPP. Based on the previous discussion, one realizes that a productive
CAPP system must contain tremendous amount of knowledge – facts about the machine and shop
environment as well as rules about sequencing machining operations must be included. A traditional
CAPP program cannot learn new knowledge without a programmer explicitly rewriting it. The rigidity of
traditional methodology endangers the implementation of CAPP systems. A KB system stores knowledge
in a special manner so that it is possible to add, delete and modify facts and rules in the knowledge base
without rewriting the program, i.e. it learns new things according to embedded learning procedures. A
complete set of manufacturing knowledge is not equipped by any existing knowledge-based process
planning system. Most of these systems focus on a small portion of the issues in the domain of automated
process planning using an expert systems approach.

Some of them are :

EXCAP Family of Process Planning Systems

EXCAP, EXpert Computer-Aided Process Planning, developed by Davies and Darbyshire, is a
knowledge-based system for rotational part process planning. EXCAP-A and EXCAP-Y are previous
generations of the current member of the EXCAP family of process planning systems.
GARI:
GARI is the first AI-based CAPP program to appear in the literature. It is implemented in MACLISP and
operates on CII-Honeywell Bull HB-68 computer under the MULTICS operating system. GARI utilizes
production rules in its knowledge representation and generates a process plan from a model of the part. It
emphasizes the “conflict resolution”. The knowledge is rather subjective and specialized. As a result, in
the planning process, “compromises are often necessary.”
TOM : Technostructure of Manufacturing:
TOM is another production rule-based CAPP system written in PASCAL and runs on VAX computer.
TOM was designed to accept input in two ways: (1) directly entering part desecration by the user, and (2)
translating design data from COMPAC CAD system. TOM can deal with “holes” exclusively.
SIPP : Semi-Intelligent Process Planner :
SIPP is an AI-based CAPP system for the creation of metal parts using chip metal removal operations. It
is written in PROLOG and utilizes “frames” as its knowledge representation scheme instead of using
production rules. Frames are used to represent two types of knowledge: (1) information about the
characteristics of various kinds of machinable surfaces, and (2) the capabilities of various machining
processes.
SIPS:
SIPS, another AI-based CAPP system which selects machining operations for the creation of metal parts,
is a successor to SIPP. It is written in LISP and is currently being integrated into the AMRF (Automated

12
Manufacturing Research Facility) project, where it is used to select machining operations on a feature by
feature basis. Like SIPP, SIPS also employs branch and bound search strategy for the least-costfirst
solution in its inference engine. The basic difference between SIPP and SIPS is that SIPS used a new
knowledge representation technique, called hierarchical knowledge clustering, instead of “flat” frames to
represent problem-solving knowledge.
TOLTEC:
TOLTEC is a system equipped with some learning capability. It takes input as feature-based part
description interactively. The features are represented in a frame structure. It generates output in a form of
operations and their sequence.
Turbo-CAPP:
Turbo-CAPP is a knowledge-based CAPP system written in PROLOG and capable of :
extracting and interpreting surface features from a 2&1/2-D CAD data base.
performing intelligent reason for process planning.
learning new process and machining capabilities.
generating alternative process plans (based on the current status of the knowledge base).
creating generic NC part programs for automated.
Turbo-CAPP is designed to handle strictly symmetric rotational parts. It employs a backward chining
inference mechanism for plan generation. In the process of creating process plan and NC codes, the
system must acquire knowledge from the user from time to time.
XPS-2 Family of CAPP Systems:
CAM-I started the first structured development of process planning systems. It then embarked on a form-
feature based, generative planning project, XPS and accomplished with the completion of XPS-2 in 1987.
The form feature used to implement XPS-2 were taken from a “feature taxonomy” developed by CAM-I.
Other Knowledge-Based CAPP Systems :
Rather than aforementioned Knowledge-Based CAPP System some other KB process planning systems
are in existence : (i) CMPP (Austin, 1996) is a planning system for planning cylindrical parts (also for
some non-cylindrical features). It performs dimension, tolerance, and stock removal analysis based on a
sophisticated algorithm with the objective of optimizing tolerance capabilities of shop equipment. (ii) Hi-
MAPP developed by Brenfi and Khoshnevis. (iii) Wolfe and Kung in 1984 developed a CAPP system,
which reads part geometry from a PADL model and generates process plans automatically.
Implementation Techniques
Various techniques can be followed in the implementation of CAPP systems. Notables ofthem are
discussed in the following sections.
1 Group technology:
The typical utilization of GT is in the part family concept where coding and classifying of the part are
done. The GT principles are mainly used in the variant process planning systems. CAPP-I, SAPT,
TOJICAP, WICAPP are some of the systems which are implemented using the GT principles.
2 The Bottom-up approach:
This approach develops the CAPP systems by filling in materials to convert a finished part back to the
initial blank. This is similar to conventional computer assisted process planning method oriented towards
the variant approach.
3 The Top-Down approach:
This approach develops the CAPP system by means of tracing the task of process planning from top to
bottom i.e. from raw material to finished part. This is an automated computer aided process planning
method oriented towards the generative approach. This requires the general rules of manufacturing
strategy to be built into algorithms which can operate on brief input data describing the geometric features
and engineering requirements of part.
4 AI & Expert system techniques:

13
 An expert system can be defined as a tool that has the capability to understand the problem specific
knowledge and use the domain knowledge intelligently to suggest alternative paths of action. CAPP
systems using this technique are called as either expert system (ES) or knowledge based system (KBS).
The decision logic is implemented using the IF.... THEN.... rules are frame-based rules. TOM, GARI,
EXCAP, KAPPS, XPLAN are some ofthe CAPP systems in which these techniques are implemented.
GENERATIVE CAPP SYSTEM DIAGRAM:

Inference Engine:
In the field of Artificial Intelligence, inference engine is a component of the system that applies logical
rules to the knowledge base to deduce new information. The first inference engines were components
of expert systems. The typical expert system consisted of a knowledge base and an inference engine. The
knowledge base stored facts about the world. The inference engine applies logical rules to the knowledge
base and deduced new knowledge. This process would iterate as each new fact in the knowledge base
could trigger additional rules in the inference engine. Inference engines work primarily in one of two
modes either special rule or facts: forward chaining and backward chaining. Forward chaining starts with
the known facts and asserts new facts. Backward chaining starts with goals, and works backward to
determine what facts must be asserted so that the goals can be achieved.
Architecture:
The logic that an inference engine uses is typically represented as IF-THEN rules. The general format of
such rules is IF <logical expression> THEN <logical expression>. Prior to the development of expert
systems and inference engines artificial intelligence researchers focused on more powerful theorem
prover environments that offered much fuller implementations of First Order Logic. For example, general

14
statements that included universal quantification (for all X some statement is true) and existential
quantification (there exists some X such that some statement is true). What researchers discovered is that
the power of these theorem proving environments was also their drawback. It was far too easy to create
logical expressions that could take an indeterminate or even infinite time to terminate. For example, it is
common in universal quantification to make statements over an infinite set such as the set of all natural
numbers. Such statements are perfectly reasonable and even required in mathematical proofs but when
included in an automated theorem prover executing on a computer may cause the computer to fall into an
infinite loop. Focusing on IF-THEN statements (what logicians call Modus Ponens) still gave developers
a very powerful general mechanism to represent logic but one that could be used efficiently with
computational resources. What is more there is some psychological research that indicates humans also
tend to favor IF-THEN representations when storing complex knowledge.
A simple example of Modus Ponens often used in introductory logic books is "If you are human then you
are mortal". This can be represented in pseudocode as:
Rule1: Human(x) => Mortal(x)
A trivial example of how this rule would be used in an inference engine is as follows. In forward
chaining, the inference engine would find any facts in the knowledge base that matched Human(x) and for
each fact it found would add the new information Mortal(x) to the knowledge base. So if it found an
object called Socrates that was Human it would deduce that Socrates was Mortal. In Backward Chaining
the system would be given a goal, e.g. answer the question is Socrates Mortal? It would search through
the knowledge base and determine if Socrates was Human and if so would assert he is also Mortal.
However, in backward chaining a common technique was to integrate the inference engine with a user
interface. In that way rather than simply being automated the system could now be interactive. In this
trivial example if the system was given the goal to answer the question if Socrates was Mortal and it
didn't yet know if he was human it would generate a window to ask the user the question "Is Socrates
Human?" and would then use that information accordingly.
This innovation of integrating the inference engine with a user interface led to the second early
advancement of expert systems: explanation capabilities. The explicit representation of knowledge as
rules rather than code made it possible to generate explanations to users. Both explanations in real time
and after the fact. So if the system asked the user "Is Socrates Human?" the user may wonder why she
was being asked that question and the system would use the chain of rules to explain why it was currently
trying to ascertain that bit of knowledge: i.e., it needs to determine if Socrates is Mortal and to do that
needs to determine if he is Human. At first these explanations were not much different than the standard
debugging information that developers deal with when debugging any system. However, an active area of
research was utilizing natural language technology to ask, understand, and generate questions and
explanations using natural languages rather than computer formalisms.
An inference engine cycles through three sequential steps: match rules, select rules, and execute rules.
The execution of the rules will often result in new facts or goals being added to the knowledge base which
will trigger the cycle to repeat. This cycle continues until no new rules can be matched.
In the first step, match rules, the inference engine finds all of the rules that are triggered by the current
contents of the knowledge base. In forward chaining the engine looks for rules where the antecedent (left
hand side) matches some fact in the knowledge base. In backward chaining the engine looks for
antecedents that can satisfy one of the current goals.
In the second step select rules, the inference engine prioritizes the various rules that were matched to
determine the order to execute them. In the final step, execute rules, the engine executes each matched
rule in the order determined in step two and then iterates back to step one again. The cycle continues until
no new rules are matched.

15
Implementations
Early inference engines focused primarily on forward chaining. These systems were usually implemented
in the Lisp programming language. Lisp was a frequent platform for early AI research due to its strong
capability to do symbolic manipulation. Also, as an interpreted language it offered productive
development environments appropriate to debugging complex programs. A necessary consequence of
these benefits was that Lisp programs tended to be slower and less robust than compiled languages of the
time such as C. A common approach in these early days was to take an expert system application and
repackage the inference engine used for that system as a re-usable tool other researchers could use for the
development of other expert systems. For example, MYCIN was an early expert system for medical
diagnosis and EMYCIN was an inference engine extrapolated from MYCIN and made available for other
researchers.[1]
As expert systems moved from research prototypes to deployed systems there was more focus on issues
such as speed and robustness. One of the first and most popular forward chaining engines
was OPS5 which used the Rete algorithm to optimize the efficiency of rule firing. Another very popular
technology that was developed was the Prolog logic programming language. Prolog focused primarily on
backward chaining and also featured various commercial versions and optimizations for efficiency and
robustness.[5]
As Expert Systems prompted significant interest from the business world various companies, many of
them started or guided by prominent AI researchers created productized versions of inference engines.
For example, Intellicorp was initially guided by Edward Feigenbaum. These inference engine products
were also often developed in Lisp at first. However, demands for more affordable and commercially
viable platforms eventually made Personal Computer platforms very popular.

16