Computer-aided process planning (CAPP)

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP)

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) involves computer technology for designing the process plan for the whole manufacturing system. It includes computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), but computer-aided process planning focuses on industrial processes.
or we can say that CAPP is the application of the computer to assist the human process planer in the process planning function. it helps to reduce the time and effort required to prepare process plans and provide a more consistent process plan.
Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) helps to determine the processing steps required to make a part after CAP has been used to define what is to be made.

Advantages of CAPP 

• It can systematically produce accurate and consistent process plans.
• The decrease in process planning time
• It leads to the reduction of cost and lead times of process plans.
• The skill requirement of the process planer is reduced to develop a feasible process plan. 
• Enhanced productivity and process rationalization
• The decrease in the needed skill of the process planner 

Retrieval type process planing 

• In the retrieval type of CAPP system, the various parts to be manufactured are classified, stored in a family with specific codes.
• Within each part, the family standard process plan is established, which is stored in the computer. 
• This process plan is also used for the new parts that come under the same family.
• This process plan is also used for the new parts that come under the same family.. 
• The whole process plan documents the operations as well as the sequence of operations on different machines.
• The retrieval CAPP system offers lots of flexibility as one can do lots of editing and changes as per the requirements.

Generative type process planning

In generative process planning, process plans are generated by means of decision logic, formulas, technology algorithms, and geometry-based data to perform uniquely processing decisions. The main aim is to convert a part from raw material to a finished state. Hence, the generative process plan may be defined as a system that synthesizes process information in order to create a process plan for a new component automatically.

Generative process plans have a number of advantages.

• Among the major ones are the following :
• They rely less on group technology code numbers since the process usually uses the decision tree to categorize parts into families. 
• Maintenance and updating of stored process plans are largely unnecessary. Since any plan may be quickly regenerated by processing through the tree.