Integrating an Expert System And a Neural Network for Process Planning

This paper presents a computer aided process planner for metal furniture assembly, welding and painting using a rule based expert system integrated with an artificial neural network. The if/then rules create parts lists and process plans, while the neural network estimates standard processing times for individual product variations. Although essentially a variant process planner, the rules and neural network allows some generalization capability to new products. This development effort demonstrated that a composite intelligent approach can be useful for process planning in a real manufacturing situation.