Page 79 - DCAP302_ENTERPRISE_RESOURCE_PLANNING

Unit 4: Manufacturing Perspective of ERP

notes

4.3.1 applications of computer-aided manufacturing

The field of computer-aided design has steadily advanced over the past four decades to the stage
at which conceptual designs for new products can be made entirely within the framework of
CAD software. From the development of the basic design to the Bill of Materials necessary to
manufacture the product there is no requirement at any stage of the process to build physical
prototypes.
Computer-aided Manufacturing takes this one step further by bridging the gap between the
conceptual design and the manufacturing of the finished product. Whereas in the past it would
be necessary for a design developed using CAD software to be manually converted into a drafted
paper drawing detailing instructions for its manufacture, Computer-Aided Manufacturing
software allows data from CAD software to be converted directly into a set of manufacturing
instructions.
CAM software converts 3D models generated in CAD into a set of basic operating instructions
written in G-Code. G-code is a programming language that can be understood by numerical
controlled machine tools – essentially industrial robots – and the G-code can instruct the machine
tool to manufacture a large number of items with perfect precision and faith to the CAD design.
Modern numerical controlled machine tools can be linked into a ‘cell’, a collection of tools that
each performs a specified task in the manufacture of a product. The product is passed along
the cell in the manner of a production line, with each machine tool (i.e. welding and milling
machines, drills, lathes etc.) performing a single step of the process.
For the sake of convenience, a single computer ‘controller’ can drive all of the tools in a single cell.
G-code instructions can be fed to this controller and then left to run the cell with minimal input
from human supervisors.

4.3.2 origin of caD/cam

CAD had its origins in three separate sources, which also serve to highlight the basic operations
that CAD systems provide. The first source of CAD resulted from attempts to automate the drafting
process. These developments were pioneered by the General Motors Research Laboratories in the
early 1960s. One of the important time-saving advantages of computer modeling over traditional
drafting methods is that the former can be quickly corrected or manipulated by changing a
model’s parameters. The second source of CAD was in the testing of designs by simulation. The
use of computer modeling to test products was pioneered by high-tech industries like aerospace
and semiconductors. The third source of CAD development resulted from efforts to facilitate
the flow from the design process to the manufacturing process using numerical control (NC)

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