As part of the UK government Alvey programme a number of large-scale demonstrators were funded, one of which was the design to product (DtoP) project. Design to Product has been assessing and applying advanced techniques in information technology to computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) with the intention of pathfinding the requirements for the next generation of computer integrated manufacturing implementations. Such systems are envisaged as integrated networks of distributed intelligent facilities supporting all aspects of the company operations and particularly the product lifecycle, from design through manufacturing to in-service operations. Manufacturing companies of the future will require such information systems to improve their manufacturing capabilities and to make optimum use of the limited skills resources available in companies. >

The 'design to product' Alvey large scale demonstrator

The paper demonstrates the feasibility of planning using the properties of operations available in a factory, without the explicit statement of the relationships between these operations being required. This approach allows the generation of plans to be broken down into sub-problems which can be performed, if necessary, by specialist planners, a framework for integrating specialised planning systems thus being produced.

Darrel M. Temple

Papers

Multiple context planning within a truth-maintenance system