A Manufacturability Evaluation and Improvement System

Abstract The increasing application of CAE has lead to the evolution of Concurrent Engineering — a philosophy that prescribes simultaneous consideration of the life-cycle design issues of a product. The Concurrent Engineering (CE) systems that have been developed so far have relied on knowledge bases and qualitative evaluations of a part’s manufacturability for feedback to the design engineer. This paper describes a method for developing quantitative indicators of manufacturability. Feature-based design and estimation of machining parameters are used for ascertaining a part’s manufacturing requirements. These requirements are then combined into indices which lead the designer to features that must be redesigned for improved manufacturability. This method is illustrated on a system for rotational machined parts: the Manufacturability Evaluation and Improvement System (MEIS).