Application of group technology for design data management

Group Technology (GT) as a manufacturing philosophy plays a major role in design standardization, manufacturing cell layouts, process planning, purchasing, and manufacturing technology systems design. One of the most effective ways to use GT is to facilitate significant reductions in design time and effort. A design engineer faced with the task of developing a new part design must either start from scratch or obtain an existing drawing from the files and make the necessary changes to conform to the requirements of the new part. The problem of finding a similar design is quite difficult and time consuming for large engineering departments. The objectives of this research are to develop a classification and coding system for rapid design retrieval of all design data pertaining to the manufacturing of machine tools. This paper proposes and details five steps in the development of group technology databases: 1) data collection, 2) data classification, 3) data analysis, 4) data coding, and 5) data querying. This paper also develops a software prototype written in C language called Interactive Design Retrieval System (IDRS) which assists in an efficient design retrieval process. The proposed prototype also facilitates efficient design data management. In conclusion, an assessment and extension of the results are provided.