Similarity-based Product Search for Next Generation Process Planning

The main challenges for companies in today's environment are an increased demand for customized products, shorter product life cycles and the resulting higher amount of variants. This leads to significant growth in existing production data. Additionally, improved ICT-systems and networks enable production planners to access a broader range of data, containing previous solutions and best practices and therefore the required knowledge and experience. Currently this knowledge and experience is not sufficiently used, as the process planning, work scheduling and route sheet generation is often a manual process, relying on the personal experience of the planner. This paper presents an approach to support the process planning with the help of an innovative method and corresponding digital tool. The digital tool gathers the master data records and numerical control code from previous products. It provides a library of attributes describing the products and the production processes. Through the employment of the developed method and digital tool, process planning can be sped up and standardize by eliminating or reducing manual search. Double work can be avoided. In total, the method and digital tool enable process planners to react faster and more accurately while gaining a competitive edge in dealing with the challenges on the global markets.