Manufacturability analysis of early product designs

The calculation and optimization of product manufacturability during the preliminary stages of design are critical to achieving reduced time to market, high quality and low cost. An aggregate planning method, which translates early product characteristics into manufacturing requirements, forms the basis of a new intelligent support system for which the manufacturing evaluation, optimization and reporting functions are described in this paper. The system 'intelligently explores' the many alternative processing technologies and equipment choices available, seeking solutions that best satisfy a multi-criteria objective function encapsulating quality, cost, delivery and knowledge criteria. The addition of knowledge factors means that both quantitative and qualitative factors can be used to rank alternatives. Importantly, the system prioritizes each element according to its potential for improvement. The designer is thus presented with the opportunity to redefine the design elements or process specifications, which would yield the greatest improvements in production.