INTEGRATED PRODUCT AND PROCESS DESIGN ENVIRONMENT TOOL FOR MANUFACTURING T R MODULES/

We present a decision-making assistant tool for an integrated product and process design environment for manufacturing applications. Specifi cally, we target microwave modules that use electro-mechanical compone nts and require optimal solutions to reduce cost, improve quality, and gain leverage in time to market the product. This tool will assist th e product and process designer to improve their productivity and enabl e them to cooperate and coordinate their designs through a common desi gn interface. We consider a multiobjective optimization model that det ermines components and processes for a given conceptual design for mic rowave modules. This model outputs a set of solutions that the Pareto optimal concerning cost, quality, and other metrics. In addition, we i dentify system integration issues for manufacturing applications, and propose an architecture that will serve as a building block to our con tinuing research in virtual manufacturing applications. (C) 1998 Chapm an & Hall.