REENGINEERING OF DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

The development of IDEF tools for modeling and analysis of processes has been motivated by the desire to increase productivity by improving communication and structure of manufacturing systems. Constructing an IDEF model is only one component of a comprehensive process modeling effort. Representing IDEF models as process graphs. performing observational model analysis, and analysis of IDEF model structure are issues addressed in this paper. The paper includes a review of current approaches to IDEF modeling in industry, as well as techniques for analysis of IDEF models. The fundamentals of IDEF0 and IDEF3 are discussed, however, the emphasis of the paper is on model analysis and reengineering design and manufacturing processes. An algorithm for model analysis is presented.