Alternate Process

The only best method for manufacturing a product has not yet been discovered, nor can it be said that a job can be performed in only one way. The process engineer is continuously facing alternative solutions to manufacturing problems and no doubt always will be. Possibility, alternate process operations come from a combination of information gleaned from the part print, imagination, and the process engineer's knowledge of known processes.

The assumption that the design engineer, through the part print, maintains absolute control over the process of manufacture is not always true. The product designer's interest is - and should be - in the physical specification of the workpiece, material-wise, functionally, and from the standpoint of acceptable appearance. How the part is manufactured to these specifications is the job of the process engineer. Economy of manufacture is a factor that frequently upsets the best laid plans; it calls for coordinating the efforts of both the design and manufacturing activities. Only a careful manufacturing cost study will reveal, for example, whether a part should be produced from a casting, a forging, or bar stock.

The general configuration of the part will often reveal these alternatives. This does not imply that the process engineer or any other person except the designer has the right to change the part print or its specifications. This would be unrealistic for certain characteristics desired in the part may not be fully apparent from the study of the print. The direction of the fibre flow lines in a certain forged part, for instance, might produce a stronger and more desirable part than one produced from a casting of the same material.