AN AGENT-BASED MECHANISM FOR MANUFACTURABILITY EVALUATION IN THE PRODUCT REALIZATION PROCESS

摘要

This paper is based on a subset of a larger integrated fixture design, analysis, and optimization system. An agent-based methodology for evaluating manufacturability of a product is described. Agents are autonomous/semi-autonomous procedures that communicate between each other and perform specialized tasks. Such a methodology can be useful in integrating larger tasks as in a integrated product development project. This could lead to reduced product development time and cost by providing means for virtual prototyping. This paper describes a feature-based design system, a agent architecture for such a feature-based design system. And a agent-based methodology by using manufacturability evaluation agent that interacts with other agents and a feature-based design system in assessing the product's manufacturability. Actual process capability data is used in performing this evaluation. As an outcome of the results of this manufacturability evaluation, designers, and other agents in a larger project can receive feedback about a product's quality for manufacture there by reducing lead time in the product's manufacture.