PREAMP - A PRE-COMPETITIVE PROJECT IN INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY - AN ARCHITECTURE TO DEMONSTRATE CONCURRENT ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION SHARING

Pre-competitive research and development is one method of examining in dustry-wide concerns and determining future directions. It disperses t he cost and risk of such projects across many companies. The subject o f this paper is one such project in the area of design and manufacturi ng of printed circuit assemblies (PCAs) known as PreAmp. The paper dis cusses the PreAmp origin, its goals, and technology issues to be asses sed by the program. It continues with an in-depth discussion of the Pr eAmp system architecture and the components of that architecture. The paper highlights knowledge acquisition and rule definition architectur e. Discussion continues with system components that address new concep ts in concurrent engineering (e.g. manufacturing resource editor and p roducibility advisor). The paper concludes with a summary of how PreAm p supports concurrent engineering and a schedule of system prototypes and pilots.