Hybrid evolutionary multi-objective approaches to process planning global optimization for complex parts

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) is an important bridge between computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) in the computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) environment. Considering the characteristics of multiple constraints, multi-factor, multi-objective and highly nonlinear for process planning, in this paper, a strategy of “decomposition- refinement-integrated” is applied to process planning optimization globally by dividing the process into multiple levels and planning collaboratively between levels, so the combinations of localization and global, serialization and parallel are achieved. The hybrid approach is proposed to incorporate the evolutionary algorithms, multi-objective optimization for process planning and can be able to obtain several satisfactory process plans through specially designed genetic operators and collaborative mechanism. The technique was implemented and the validity of the approach was demonstrated in a case study.