Abstract
Keywords: Simulation, Process Planning, Digital Manufacturing
Production planning or manufacturing process planning, deals with the task of defining how a product is made. In this process, specifications of incoming products are converted into manufacturing or process plans. Process planning is critical to effective manufacturing operations. Manufacturing applications comprise various resources like equipment, labor and material. The availability of resources is typically defined by shift patterns and/or the production, arrival or consumption of material. Resources are also often grouped together and selection rules used to allocate resources from these groups to perform work. In many cases, the same resource might land up in multiple groups. The ability to flexibly model resources and resource groups along with their corresponding shift and breakdown patterns is a key requirement in most manufacturing applications.
Historically, manufacturing process planning was manual, based primarily on the knowledge of individual process planners. The process planners use their experience to arrive at a feasible planning solution but to be able to compare alternative solutions require a lot of resources and time. Hence usually optimization takes place only after the facility is in place, which may involve additional capital expenses. Computer aided simulation can be used to progressively evaluate various what-if scenarios and provide feedback to fill this gap.