Product and process dimensioning and tolerancing techniques. A state-of-the-art review

Dimensioning and tolerancing are important engineering processes in the dif ferent phases of a product development cycle. The two main phases in a prod uct cycle, where dimensioning and tolerancing techniques are extensively em ployed are in the areas of product design and process planning. Tolerance a nd dimension assignment in both product design and process planning has an equally important role in keeping the production cost down and hence, requi res equal attention as far as research into these areas are concerned Anoth er important motivating factor for research is that manual dimension and to lerance assignment is often tedious, time-consuming and requires a consider able amount of skill and experience on the part of the engineer, resulting in inconsistencies and errors. Extensive research, in the area of dimension ing and tolerancing in both product design and process planning, has been c arried out with the advancement in computers since the 1970s. The purpose o f this paper is to review the state-of-the-art dimensioning and tolerancing techniques in both product design and process planning and explore the opp ortunities for future research in these areas.