Some aspects of integrated product and manufacturing process

In the frame of concurrent engineering the design of the parts, the production planning, even the production system must be addressed quite simultaneously. In this way the design and development cycle is reduced and the manufacturing constraints are taken into account as soon as possible. The need of a short reconfiguration time leads to the concept of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS): using those systems, the manufacturer only uses elementary cells (such as milling cells, supports, tooling, etc...) which can be easily and quickly replaced as soon as the demand changes. Alternatively, this higher reconfiguration speed can be improved by using Virtual Manufacturing: the manufacturer can design, draw and simulate the line and its evolution in terms of quality, flows and costs. Evaluating the best performance of several configurations before the system is built, results in a gain of time. In the frame of virtual manufacturing this paper will deal with creating and simulating machining process using a computer aided engineering software in order to address technical, economical and production constraints.