Model driven process planning for machining : Theory, application and improved information standards for efficient product realization

Abstract: Model driven process planning is a methodology that emphasizes the application of models to create, represent and use information of products, processes and resources. Industry today stores information in a fragmented manner, mainly document centered with the consequence of data duplication requiring comprehensive data management and maintenance. This thesis contributes to the understanding of information representation of product and machining system specification and characteristics to support process planning and operation.The ISO 10303 standard for industrial data has been applied as a key utility in this research, as it enables full control and understanding of information representation in diverse engineering domains. Research collaboration with participants of the International Organization for Standardization ISO has taken place, with contributions to standards development and implementation.The basics of process planning are to achieve the unambiguous and complete information required for producing a product. The machining process plan, as a coherent model, represents relationships between manufacturing features, machined faces, tolerances and used cutting tools. It is essential for the representation of information to relate data to its valid interpretation context. Of importance is also that models and model schemas are decoupled from where, how and when the models are created, manipulated and finalized. Based on this principle, achieved coherent process plans supports efficient production engineering work processes.Unambiguous and efficient modeling of manufacturing resources and their characteristics requires definitions of its specific domain concepts combined with generic data representation structures. This combination provides a stable and standardized data model, also capable of representing manufacturing resources developed in the future. The proposed modeling approach for manufacturing resource characterisation is valid for any product mechanism.For implementation of the proposed increased integration, a modeling specification will be required. With the application of model driven process planning, new industrial benefits have been explored. The main principle of relating data to its valid context, applied to model driven process planning for machining, gives new possibilities for increased productivity.