Computer aided process planning for sheet metal based on information management

During the last few years, attention in the manufacturing cycle has shifted towards concurrent engineering (CE). With this, the integration of the different product life cycle processes has become a focus in both research and industry. However, it is obvious that the integration of all manufacturing processes, taking into account all life cycle aspects from initial functional requirements to final disposal, is hardly feasible in the traditional way. In this paper, the execution of the manufacturing cycle based on information management is explained by describing the development of a generic architecture for computer aided process planning. This architecture is elaborated upon for the field of sheet metal manufacturing in a small batch part environment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.