Variant Process Planning

A variant process-planning system employs the similarity between the components to retrieve existing process plans. A process plan that might be used by a family of components is called a standard plan. A standard plan is stored permanently in the database along with a family number like its key. There is no restriction to the detail that a standard plan can contain. However, it should contain at least a sequence of fabrication steps or operations.

While a standard plan is retrieved, a certain degree of modification is usually essential to use the plan on a new component. In variant systems, the retrieval method and the logic are predicated on the grouping of parts into families. Then Common manufacturing methods may be identified for each family. Such common manufacturing methods are shown by standard plans.

The mechanism of standard-plan retrieval is depending on part families. A family is shown by a family matrix that includes every possible member. The structure of this family matrix is discussed later. Usually, variant process-planning systems have two operational stages: a preparatory stage and a production stage.