Loughborough University Manufacturing Planner

The Loughborough University Manufacturing Planner (LUMP) is a computer aided process planning system based on advanced techniques; its architecture is unique. The incorporation of a rating system where the basic information is rated according to confidence or credibility encourages the exploration of the most promising sets of plans but does not precule exploration of other avenues when appropriate. The author´s approach to the problem of process planning is to integrate specialist software within a loose framework and allows the `experts´ to contribute to the solution, he also supports a creative design activity in assisting the process planner to use structured search techniques to explore a potentially very large set of possible plans. LUMP has the ability to link a large number of knowledge sources and to reason about the information they yield, it also enables the use of specialist software. This combination of open multiple context architecture and extensive knowledge engineering allows manufacturing policy to be treated as a design activity rather than a prescriptive path from design to manufacture