Manufacturing process planning in aerospace systems

Abstract

Process planning is a task comprising a broad range of activities to design and develop an appropriate manufacturing process for producing a part. Interpretation of the part design, selection of manufacturing processes, definition of operations, operation sequences, machining datums, geometrical dimensions and tolerances are some common activities associated with the task. Manufacturing process planning can be defined as systematic determination of detailed methods by which work pieces or parts can be manufactured economically and competitively from raw material stage to final finished size. Geometrical features, dimensional sizes, tolerances, materials, and finishes, are analyzed evaluated to determine appropriate sequence of processing operations, which are based on specific, available resources viz machinery and manpower. Inputs to process planning are designing data, raw material data, resource data (machining data, tooling data, fixture data etc), quality requirement data, production type data etc. The output of a process planning is a process document which is an important document in production management. The paper mainly discusses about production planning and control of metallic manufacturing activities in an aerospace Research and Development (R&D) industry, main emphasis on manufacturing process planning. The general process planning methodology adopted in an aircraft industry is discussed. Elements and Functions of process planning, model of process planning, main mission of process planning, the interaction of processes and its process performance indices are discussed and presented. Importance of manufacturing process planning in an aerospace R&D industry is debated. Also, a case study of process planning adopted for manufacturing of a critical Aircraft system component is discussed.