Object-oriented design of information integration in sheet metal manufacturing

To fully exploit the capabilities of JIT and cellular manufacturingwhile remaining flexible andadaptive to design changes, make-to-order MTO manufacturer requires flexible manufacturing processing technology and an information system that allows for continuous feedback between its sales, design, and manufacturing departments. A methodology to integrate the engineering information horizontally among these functions and vertically with the manufacturing cell has beendeveloped.A casestudy of an existingMTOmanufacturer the 'company' illustrates this methodology with horizontal vertical information systems integration and laser processing technology. As a result, the company can optimize the JIT and cellular manufacturing capabilities of a newly designed workcell called the redesigned Swing Return workcell. A parallel object-oriented model is developed which performs the information functions of data transfer from the design database to the manufacturing database and control of the workflow inside the redesign...