Concurrent and collaborative process planning for automotive general assembly

To ensure competitiveness in today's automotive market, process planning should be performed concurrently with other engineering activities during new car development. In this paper, new business workflows and the support system for process planning of an automotive general assembly are proposed and presented. Since process planning for a whole general assembly shop is a huge and complex job, several process planners should execute planning together. Therefore, planners should consult with one another regarding his/her results through continuous online communication and cooperation. Process planning based on computers, database and Internet is inevitable for reducing manufacturing preparation time and costs through concurrent and collaborative engineering. In this research, the Web-based process planning system for general assembly shops using the bound operation method is implemented and proven. By using this system, savings in time and cost of assembly process planning are possible, and the reliability of the planning results is greatly improved.