CAM-NC planning with real and virtual process data

Mastering complex production processes is a key factor for manufacturing enterprises from countries with a high level of wages for competing on the global market. These enterprises particularly require accurate planning processes that enable high process efficiency without losing flexibility. Both objectives, efficiency and flexibility, can be addressed by an extended assessment of process data and virtual technologies. Given a seamless integration into the planning chain, these technologies are able to support production in early planning phases, as well as in later stages where optimisation and fine tuning prevail. Hence, two adjustments of conventional planning processes have been developed at WZL that are presented in this paper. The first approach addresses concurrent, systematic acquisition of process data on machine tools in production; the second is based on coupled simulations that are embedded into operations planning. The outlined approaches contribute to a more efficient CAM-NC chain that contains different elements of data handling, knowledge management and user assistance.