Integrated product and process design across an extended enterprise: An implementation in fixture design

Abstract

Integrated product and process design (IPPD) is a product development strategy that aims to optimise the product development process through the integrated concurrent design of the product and the manufacturing processes. The research in this thesis addresses the issue of developing design and manufacturing applications for facilitating IPPD across the global extended enterprise. In the development of design and manufacturing applications for facilitating IPPD, three sub-issues are addressed: a) an integrated computing environment, b) information support for collaborative decision-making in IPPD and c) dealing with design changes in the dynamic environment characteristic of IPPD. The sub-issues of information support for collaborative decision-making and dealing with design changes are addressed using fixture design as a domain example. The fixture design process is formulated using two approaches, as a sequential interactive process and as an automated evolutionary search process. Dealing with design changes in both these approaches is explored.