Manufacturability assessment: an object-oriented approach

The concepts and techniques of object-oriented modeling are used to model the assessment knowledge as well as part definition data to automate manufacturability assessment. Each type of knowledge (i.e., assessment and control knowledge) is represented in terms of production rules and abstracted into objects to facilitate the management of knowledge and modeling of the entire assessment process. Part definition data are represented in an object-oriented part model with the characteristics of data abstraction, adaptability and modularization. The behavior of the assessment process is defined in terms of methods in both part models and assessment process objects. The approaches to conflict resolution used in the system are considered.<>