INTEGRATION OF A CAPP SYSTEM AND AN FMS

This study investigates the integration of a Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP) system and a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Specifically three activities are involved: (1) development of a variant CAPP system which helps the process planner prepare process plans based on KK3 codes and surface information, (2) integration of the CAPP system with an FMS, (3) study of the impact of alternate routing and/or alternate machine on the performance of the FMS so as to determine an "optimal" process plan. This paper discusses the methodology and presents some interesting observations. This study can be seen as a first step toward integrating CAPP and FMS.