Abstract
Integrated Product Process Development tools which minimize downstream manufacturing risk at the earliest design stages and avoid costly Design-Build-Test cycles are essential to achieving product profitability and meeting market windows. This paper summarizes initial work performed towards the development of the Manufacturing Simulation Driver (MSD) system which will demonstrate the automatic generation and execution of distributed manufacturing simulations. These simulation models are produced by Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) software tools which reason about Computer Aided Design (CAD) product models and produce manufacturing “scripts” from a process and resource model of a manufacturing facility. This capability will enable emerging virtual enterprises conducting collaborative design and manufacturing to simulate and prove out the manufacturing cycle of a product prior to launching production ramp-up. 1
