Process Planning

Limitations of Manual Process Planning

– Since it is a highly skilled job done by expert process planners, there is
a high probability of losing all the skill along with the expert as he
retires.
– It is also laborious and time consuming.
– The resulting plans may be inconsistent due to variability in human
process planning.

• To overcome these shortcomings, various Computer-Aided Process

Planning (CAPP) approaches were developed.
• The main idea behind CAPP is to utilize the power of computers to help in
automating the process planning tasks.
 Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP)
Benefits of CAPP
• It offers potential to capture the knowledge of the process planners
and help to reduce the dependence on experts.
• It can significantly reduce the lead time and hence the cost.
• It can produce more accurate and optimal process plans.
• It can help to maintain more consistency in generation of process
plans.
• It has the potential to provide an automated interface between the
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing
(CAM) systems.

• The CAPP approaches can be broadly divided into the following

categories:
• Variant CAPP
• Generative CAPP
• Semi-generative CAPP
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing
• Group technology is a manufacturing philosophy in which similar parts are identified and grouped
together to take advantage of their similarities in design and production.
• Similar parts are arranged into part families, where each part possesses similar design and / or
manufacturing characteristics.
• Grouping the production equipment into machine cells, where each cell specializes in the production
of a part family, is called cellular manufacturing.
• Cellular manufacturing is an example of mixed model production.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Part families
• A part family is a collection of parts that are similar either because of geometric shape and size or
because similar processing steps are required in their manufacture.
• The parts within a family are different, but their similarities are close enough to merit their inclusion
as members of the part family.
• Figures below show different part families.

• The two parts in Figure above are very similar in terms of geometric design, but quite different in
terms of manufacturing because of differences in tolerances, production quantities and material.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Part families (continued)
• The ten parts shown in Figure constitute a part family in manufacturing, but their different
geometries make them appear quite different from a design viewpoint.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Part families (continued)
• Figure shows a process type plant layout for batch production in a machine shop.

• The various machine tools are arranged by function.

• There is a lathe department, milling machine department, drill press department, and so on.
• To machine a given part, the workpiece must be transported between departments, with perhaps the same
department being visited several times.
• This results in significant amount of material handling, large in-process inventory, many machine setups, long
manufacturing lead times, and high cost.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Part families (continued)
• Figure shows a production shop of equivalent capacity, but the machines are arranged into cells.
• Each cell is organized to specialize in the production of particular part family.
• Advantages of reduced workpiece handling yield lower setup times, fewer setups (in some cases,
no setup changes are necessary), less in-process inventory, and shorter lead times.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Part families (continued)
• The biggest single obstacle in changing over to group technology from a conventional production
shop is the problem of grouping the parts into families.
• There are three general methods for solving this problem.
• All three are time consuming and involve the analysis of much data by properly trained personnel.
• The three methods are:
(1) visual inspection
(2) parts classification and coding
(3) production flow analysis.
Visual inspection
• The visual inspection method is the least sophisticated and least expensive method. It involves
classification of parts into families by looking at either the physical parts or their photographs and
arranging them into groups having similar features.
• This method is generally considered to be least accurate of the aforementioned three methods.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Parts classification and coding
• This is the most time consuming of the three methods.
• In parts classification and coding, similarities among the parts are identified, and these
similarities are related in a coding system.
• Two categories of part similarities can be distinguished:
• (1) design attributes, which are concerned with part characteristics such as such as geometry, size,
and material
• (2) manufacturing attributes, which consider the sequence of processing steps required to make a
part.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Examples of Parts classification and coding systems
• An example of the parts classification and coding system is the Opitz classification system, which
is nonproprietary.
• The Optiz system was developed by H. Opitz of the University of Achen in Germany.
• It represents one of the pioneering efforts in group technology and is probably best known of the
parts classification and coding systems.
• It is intended for machined parts.
• The Opitz coding scheme uses the following digit sequence.
12345 6789 ABCD
• The basic code consists of nine digits, which can be extended by adding four more digits.
• The first nine are intended to convey both design and manufacturing data.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Examples of Parts classification and coding systems (continued)
• The interpretation of the first nine digits is defined in figure below.

• The first five digits 12345 are called the form code. It describes the primary design attributes of the part, such
as external shape (e.g. rotational vs. rectangular) and machined features (e.g. holes, threads. Gear teeth, etc.).
• The next four digits 6789 constitute the supplementary code, which indicates some of the attributes that would
be of use in manufacturing (e.g. dimensions, work material, starting shape, accuracy).
• The extra four digits ABCD are referred to as the secondary code and are intended to identify the production
operation type and sequence. The secondary code can be designed by the user firm to serve its own particular
needs.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Examples of Parts classification and coding systems (continued)

• Let us examine the form code consisting of the first five digits defined generally in the Figure above.
• The first digit identifies whether the part is rotational or nonrotational.
• It also describes the general shape and proportions of the part.
 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Examples of Parts classification and coding systems (continued)
• We limit our discussion to rotational parts possessing no unusual features, those with first digit values of 0, 1, or 2.

• For this class of workparts, the coding of the first five digits is defined in Figure.
 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Examples of Parts classification and coding systems (continued)
• Consider the following example to demonstrate the coding of a given part.

• Given the rotational part design in Figure above, it is required to determine the form code in the Opitz parts
classification and coding system.
Length to diameter ratio, L/D = 1.5 Digit 1 = 1
External shape: stepped on both ends with screw thread on one end Digit 2 = 5
Internal shape: part contains a through hole Digit 3 = 1
Plane surface machining: none Digit 4 = 0
Auxiliary holes, gear teeth, etc.: none Digit 5 = 0

• The form code in the Opitz system is 15100.

 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Cellular manufacturing (continued)
Composite part concept (continued)
• To illustrate, consider the composite part in Figure (a).

• It represents a family of rotational parts with features defined in Figure (b).

• Associated with each feature is a certain machining operation as summarized in table below.
 Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (continued)
Cellular manufacturing (continued)
Composite part concept (continued)
• A machine cell to produce the part family would be designed with the capability to accomplish all
seven operations required to produce the composite part.
• To produce a specific member of the family, operations would be included to fabricate the required
features of the part.
• For parts without all seven features, unnecessary operations would simply be omitted.
• Machines, fixtures and tools would be organized for efficient flow of workparts through the cell.
• In practice, the number of design and manufacturing attributes is greater than 7, and allowances
must be made for variations in overall size and shape of the parts in the family.
• Nevertheless, the composite part concept is useful for visualizing the machine cell design problem.
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
• This is an approach to part family identification and machine cell formation that was pioneered by
Burbidge.
• PFA is a method for identifying part families and associated machine groupings that uses the
information contained on production route sheets rather than on part drawings.
• These families can then be used to form logical machine cells in a GT layout.
• Since PFA uses manufacturing data rather than design data to identify part families, it can overcome
two possible anomalies that can occur in parts classification and coding.
• First parts whose basic geometries are quite different may nevertheless require similar or even
identical process routings.
• Second, parts whose geometries are quite similar may nevertheless require process routings that
are quite different.
• The procedure in production flow analysis must begin by defining the scope of the study, which
means deciding on the population of parts to be analyzed.
• Should all of the parts in the shop be included in the study, or should a representative sample be
selected for analysis?
• Once this decision is made, then the procedure in PFA consist of the following steps:
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Production flow analysis (PFA)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
• A number of quantitative techniques have been developed to deal with problem areas in group
technology and cellular manufacturing. In this section, we consider two problem areas: (1) grouping
parts and machines into families and (2) arranging machines in a GT cell.

Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering

• The problem addressed here is how machines in an existing plant should be grouped into machine
cells.
• It is basically a problem of identifying part families.
• By identifying part families, the machines required in the cell to produce the part family can be
properly selected.
• As previously mentioned, the three basic methods to identify part families are (1) visual inspection,
(2) parts classification and coding and (3) production flow analysis.
• The rank order clustering technique, first proposed by King is specifically applicable in production
flow analysis.
• It is an efficient and easy to use algorithm for grouping machines into cells.
• In a starting part machine incidence matrix that might be compiled to document the part drawings in
a machine shop, the occupied locations in the matrix are organized in a seemingly random fashion.
• Rank order clustering works by reducing the part-machine incidence matrix to a set of diagonalized
blocks that represent part families and associated machine groups.
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing (continued)
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
• Starting with the initial part-machine incidence matrix, the algorithm consists of the following steps:
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)
 Various Manufacturing Systems
Quantitative analysis in Cellular manufacturing
Grouping parts and machines by Rank Order Clustering (continued)

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