Process Planning

When setting out to produce a part, there are many issues that must be considered. Styling, initial quality and reliable long-term performance of the part are important in a highly competitive market. To achieve this and be profitable, the development and manufacturing costs, as well as the total time-to-market must be minimized. In process planning, the CAD part data is used to define the number of operations necessary to form the part as well as the operation sequence. Since each part can be produced in different ways, process planners make several alternative process plans before deciding which one to implement. Proposing alternative processes provides more clarity to the decision-making process.

AutoForm’s software enables you as a planner to rapidly generate and evaluate process plans. Since the software automatically detects the geometry features (e.g. flanges, holes, edges) of the input CAD part data, you can very quickly create alternative process concepts to produce quality and cost-effective parts within the guidelines and standards of your manufacturing operations. The software allows for increased planning reliability to meet quality and cost targets and enables the direct transfer of process plans to process engineering and validation.