Product and process configuration: A constraint based approach

This communication deals with the possibility of coupling together interactive product configuration tools with process planning tools in order to communicate and make consistent decisions made from one side to the other side. The first section introduces the problem and the general ideas of the proposed solution. Then, two constraints based models, respectively relevant to product configuration and process planning, are presented. Finally first investigations for coupling these two models and associated problems are discussed. An example illustrates our proposal through out the paper.