OPPS-PRI 2.0: an open and optimized process planning system for prismatic parts to improve the performance of SMEs in the machining industry

The needs of customers are now highly specific and continually changing, although they still want to have high-quality and low-cost products. Companies must respond rapidly to the demands of customers and improve their productivity. They must also provide a suitable product variety in order to survive and be competitive in the market. They attempt to find strong and flexible solutions to this problem. One of the keys for improving productivity and responsiveness is computer-aided process planning (CAPP). The automatic generation or preparation of effective and optimal process plans within a short period of time is vitally important in manufacturing, since small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have recently become a central part of the manufacturing industry of developing countries. The use of new technology and CNC machine tools has dramatically increased in developing countries, while complete CAD/CAM integration through CAPP is still not seen as ‘realizable’. The productivity and responsiveness of SMEs are the two fundamental issues to be improved to provide qualitative success as well as quantitative success and competitiveness. CAPP is the key technology for the increased productivity and responsiveness in SMEs, which are very sensitive to the diffusion of process planning know-how. SMEs have started to believe that it is necessary to use CAPP systems to improve the productivity of their CNC machine tools and systems. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to focus on the development of an open process planning system that can produce optimal process plans and machining codes for SMEs in the machining industry. The present paper introduces the updated version of a process planning system called OPPS-PRI 2.0 (Optimised Process Planning System for PRIsmatic parts) which was developed for SMEs.