Concurrent design of products for manufacturing system performance

Manufacturing cost forms a very major portion of the life cycle cost of a product. Also, performance of the manufacturing system directly affects the manufacturing cost of the product produced in the system. The design of products in the system also affects the performance of the manufacturing system. However, a survey of research shows that the research community has ignored consideration of manufacturing system performance during the design stage. This paper identifies critical research questions in this area. In this paper, the authors also propose a system that would allow manufacturing system performance measures to be considered during the design stage of a product. They also address issues in the integration of manufacturing models with product design software. The system takes advantage of currently existing technology and allows for integration of new developments as they occur.<>