Integrated digital design for manufacture for reduced life cycle cost

The main contribution of the work has been to present a methodology that facilitates the integration of design and manufacturing modelling at the concept design stage, including cost. In particular, the methodology allows the user to more readily exploit the digital manufacturing simulation capabilities offered through state-of-the-art software applications. The methodology is flexible and user driven, and advocates: (1) the definition of baseline design parameters in a configuration that is driven by direct operating cost (DOC), including manufacturing cost (MFC), (2) the automated generation of a digital design mock-up, and (3) detailed digital manufacturing simulation for in-depth investigation of cost-effective manufacturability. This has been coded into an industry standard modelling platform along with an interface to allow user manipulation, while iteration of the process is advocated in optimising the solution. The paper presents the collaborative application of this to the fuselage of a commercial regional jet. It is shown that a knowledge=-based engineering (KBE) approach can be encoded as a methodology for exploiting 3-D design modelling and manufacturing simulation capabilities. In addition, a novel aspect is the integration of cost into the development tool in order to generate cost-effective solutions, in terms of both MFCs and DOC.