Towards collaboratively integrated manufacturing system for tooling production in SMEs - the INPROSE Approach

Modern manufacturing is becoming more dynamic, global and customer-driven. The need for flexibility, efficiency and quality has imposed large amount of changes in the manufacturing industries. Particularly, lower product cost and shorter production lead-time with quick adaptation to dynamic customer requirements are the key success factors in the current competitive market in the precision engineering industry. The INPROSE (INtegrated PROcess planning for Simultaneous Engineering) approach, developed through a collaborative research project between the Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology and the National University of Singapore, addresses such needs by providing concurrent and collaborative integrated project management and scheduling, manufacturing feature definition, process planning and NC programming as a complete solution. It facilitates consistent information sharing, reduces engineering change errors, and provides effective integration and collaboration to drastically minimize tooling production time and cost.