AN AUTOMATED CODING AND CLASSIFICATION-SYSTEM WITH SUPPORTING DATABASE FOR EFFECTIVE DESIGN OF INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Group technology is a philosophy in manufacturing that identifies simi lar parts and group them into families. One method which is considered to be the most powerful and reliable is classification and coding. In this method each part is inspected individually by means of its desig n and processing feature. This article presents the design of a coding and classification system and the supporting database for manufacturi ng processes based on both design and manufacturing attributes of part s. An interface with the spreadsheet will calculate the machine operat ion costs for various processes. This menu driven interactive package is implemented using DBASE-IV. Part family formation and the final cel l assignment is done using KAMCELL package developed in TURBO Pascal.