Modelling for process planning: the links between process planning entities

Abstract In an integrated design framework, each actor of the design process must have his own view of the product to efficiently participate and co-design. The product model used by the process planner is presented here: it is in fact extracted from the global product model of the whole design system by filtering. The links of dependence among the different entities of the model – links of availability, accessibility and quality – are particularly emphasised in this text. Their efficiency has been tested in process planning and product designing.