The Potential for Assembly Modeling in Product Development and Manufacturing

This paper provides a definition of assembly modeling and lists many ways that important aspects of mechanical assembly can be modeled so as to improve design and manufacturing of discrete part products. Assembly modeling is divided into two categories ("small" and "large"), the former concentrating on single part-pair relations while the latter includes sets of parts and system issues such as tolerance propagation, product architecture, mixed-model manufacturing, logistics, and so on. Both nominal and varied (i.e., off-nominal) assemblies are included, using a consistent mathematical modeling base. A case is made that assembly models can be an important integrating factor in product development and manufacturing. Acknowledgments: This paper was prepared with support from ONR Grant N00014-94-1-0655, ARPA/WL/MTI Contract F33615-94-C-4428, and the MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Program. A version of this material comprised the author's keynote address at the 1995 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning, Pittsburgh, Aug. 10, 1995. I. Background and Definitions