A manufacturing process planner for a concurrent engineering environment

Most manufacturing evaluations of mechanical designs do not consider the available materials from which the design will be fabricated or the currently available processes, tools, and fixtures on the shop floor. We present a framework in which both shop floor resources, materials, and the design specification are all considered together in order to produce a manufacturability analysis. Our framework utilizes a process planner, P³, which generates low cost, high quality manufacturing plans. We use this planner to provide manufacturability feedback to the designer, aiding him or her in producing better designs