Artificial intelligence in process planning

Both the changing demands of the market and keen competition among manufacturers call for a more flexible approach to manufacturing. Adopting conventional computing methods is not adequate to meet the sophisticated needs of the modern manufacturing industry. The authors describe the approach of applying artificial intelligence techniques to process planning. An analogy between artificial intelligence planning and process planning is made. To illustrate this, the `blocks world´ is compared with the assembly of the piston connecting rod of car engines