An Approach For Intelligent Process Design Under Multi-varieties And Small-batch Mode And Its Application

The multi-varieties and small-batch mode brings both opportunity and challenge to the manufacturing enterprises.Due to the lack of consideration for reusing process knowledge,the traditional process design is inefficient,and can not adapt to the transformation of manufacturing mode.Therefore,based on the characteristics of the multi-varieties and small-batch mode,this paper carry out the research of intelligent process design with knowledge engineering method.Firstly,the modeling framework of process design information is introduced to solve the problem that most enterprises lack a structured representation method of process design information.On this basis,three conceptual models of category,object and instance are used to represent the characteristics of manufacturing products and resources.Then,the structured representation of process information is realized by process step model,process model,process route model and the related process requirement models.Thereafter,all these models are integrated by the process template.Then,to solve the problem about modeling and reusing the process parameter determination knowledge,a binary tree-based approach is proposed for representing formula-based process knowledge,together with an ordered tree-based approach for representing table-based process knowledge.Thereafter,an aggregate model of process knowledge is established to integrate the process template with the two kinds of process parameter determination knowledge.Finally,an intelligent process design prototype system is developed to realize the modeling and integrated application of process knowledge.The process design of a complex special cable product is taken as an example to verify the modeling method and prototype system.It demonstrates that the proposed approach can both improve the management of process knowledge and the efficiency of process design.