A CASE STUDY IN COMPUTER-AIDED PROCESS PLANNING AND SYSTEM DESIGN FOR AUTOMOTIVE POWERTRAIN MACHINING

摘要

Process planning and system design for automotive powertrain machining represent a large investment in engineering upon which decisions are made for equipment acquisitions that typically falls in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars. The use of Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP) and system design (CASD) applications in the early stages of a new engine program can greatly increase the reliability and quality of the solutions upon which these decisions are made. They can also reduce the engineering time and the time to evaluate proposals from system integrators. This leads to shorter product launch windows giving manufacturers a competitive edge. This paper reports upon a case study conducted to evaluate the state of the art in of CAPP and CASD technology based on a typical configuration of commercial and evolving software applications. The results show maturity of the technology in most of the core technologies. Challenges exist in integrating these solutions into a manufacturer's working environment.