Distributed Modeling of Manufacturing Activities Using Integrative Manufacturing Process Model

Process planning is one of the key activities for product design and manufacturing. Impact of process plans on all phases of product design and manufacture requires high level of interaction of different activities and tight integration of them into coherent system. In this paper we describe a model for manufacturing activities that allows such integration. The framework for integration is briefly described and the integrative manufacturing process model (IMPM) that considers three dimensions of planning is explained. Manufacturing process model is described as three-dimensional model with the following dimensions: time/order, variability/alternatives, and aggregation. All dimensions are defined and explained as they are related to overall manufacturing planning. The nature of these dimensions is illustrated with several examples. The formal description of the IMPM model is provided usign the graph theory as the basis for the model implementations. Several implementations of the model in Lisp and Java programming languages are are enumerated and applications that generate the model are described with few examples.