Digital Transformation - Implementation of Drawingless Manufacturing: A Case Study

Abstract

The typical procedure in the product development process is based on the fact that 3D CAD models of the product are created at great expense with great effort. Such a 3D model contains all geometric information about the product, and this information is available in machine-readable, digital shape. In practice, it is still common today to create only 2D technical drawings for manufacturing and quality inspection from this wealth of information. Leading software systems offer the option of adding 3D annotations directly to the part instead of 2D drawings, so that product and manufacturing-relevant information is also available in digital shape. However, many companies are deterred by the enormously costly and extensive transition to Model-Based Definition (MBD), as several factors, such as the elimination of technical drawing, data management, hardware, and software infrastructure, must also be considered in the supply chain. This paper describes a case study from conceptualization to full-scale implementation of drawingless product definition via the CAD-CAM-CAQ chain in a leading large enterprise in Austria. As a result of the centralized machine- and human-readable information provision, not only the creation and maintenance of data has decreased, but also processes downstream of construction, in particular the control program generation for machine tools and coordinate measuring machines, can be automated to a high degree with the two key technologies Feature Technology (FT) and MBD. Automation of control program generation has the advantage of significantly reducing costs and applying best practice manufacturing processes. In addition, it enables to calculate the precise manufacturing costs already at the construction stage.