Concurrent engineering utilities for controlling interactions in process planning

This paper presents two concurrent engineering tools for serving in process planning. The ®rst one, as``design for manufacturing'' utility, evaluates critical interactions between several types of machining features (i.e., holes, pockets, etc.) on prismatic parts, and modi®es original design (if possible) and re¯ects the modi®cations to all down-and upstream stations in CAD/CAM integration. The second one is for group technology and ¯exibility, by which products are designed according to the existing manufacturing system. Methodologies of the developed systems are illustrated with several examples throughout the paper.