Benefits of digital manufacturing in aerospace applications

DIGITAL Manufacturing should provide solutions to create, validate, monitor and control agile, distributed manufacturing production systems. In today's business environment, manufacturing is increasingly geared towards build-to-order and lean production. The scope of Digital Manufacturing has evolved recently to include Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP); Computer Aided Production Engineering (CAPE); a Manufacturing Database which contains product data, process data, manufacturing resources (PPR); generation of executable programs for automation; the generation of work instructions for workers on the shop floor and the feedback of manufacturing performance data from the shop floor. Digital Manufacturing is a 3D computer environment that has only become possible because the product data and tooling data are now available in 3D CAD. This paper discusses Digital Manufacturing in general terms, and within the aerospace sector specifically, including the latest research from D.H. Brown Associates and a shortened casestudy from Boeing Military Aircraft & Missile Systems.