A concurrent engineering system to support flexible automation in furniture production

Abstract

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is the consideration of the factors associated with the life-cycle of a product during the design phase. CE is important because it is at the design stage that such aspects as product quality and cost are specified. In the case of flexibly automated production CE is especially important since some designs may be difficult or impossible to manufacture using automated equipment. This paper presents an approach to CE systems for flexible automation that uses constraint networks to represent the constraining influences of the automation process. The approach is illustrated by considering furniture production (in particular wood furniture production). Furniture has been selected as an example because of its inherent complexity both in terms of product geometry and in terms of the furniture manufacturing process. CE Systems and constraint networks are reviewed. The background of both CE and automation for furniture is described. The architecture of CESFAM (Concurrent Engineering System for Flexible Automated Manufacturing), a CE system for flexibly automated furniture production is then detailed. Finally, a description of an example CESFAM session is provided. CESFAM is a system that advises designers, product developers and process planners on improvements that can be made to the design so as to improve product quality and manufacturing efficiency. It has a number of operational advantages over other potential approaches. These advantages include the fact that CESFAM allows the designer to take a pro-active part in the design function by giving straightforward advice , in real-time, for design improvement. Additionally, the system is bidirectional in that the designs can be analyzed during initial development or backtracked from a final design concept.