DEBRE MARKOS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

MEng 5322 : Process Planning & Product Costing

Chapter One
For 5th Year Mechanical Engineering Students

By: Feleke W.(Ass. Prof.)

What is Process planning?
 Process planning can be defined as “an act of preparing detailed work instructions for
the manufacture and assembly of components into a finished product in discrete part
manufacturing environments.
 According to American Society of Tool and Manufacturing Engineers, “Process
planning is the systematic determination of the methods by which a product is to be
manufactured economically and competitively.
It consists of:
 The selection of manufacturing processes and operations, production equipment, tooling and jigs &
fixtures.
 Determination of manufacturing parameters and

 Specification of selection criteria for the quality assurance (QA) methods to ensure product quality.
Process plan : The detailed instructions for making a part or a component.
It includes such information as the operations, their sequence, machines,
tools, speeds and feeds, dimensions, tolerances, stock removed, inspection
procedures and time standards (i.e., cycle time).
Process planning :It may be defined as the determination of the processes
and the sequence of operations required to make the product. It consists of
devising, selecting and specifying processes, machine tools and other
equipment to transform the raw material into finished product as per the
specifications called for by the drawings
 Design Machine
• The process planning starts Tool

with engineering drawings, Process

Planning
specifications, parts or material
lists.
Scheduling and Production Control

 When the design engineers have designed the product, the assembly drawings and

working drawings of individual components are made.

 The process planners have to see how the product can best be made to meet the

specifications mentioned in the part drawing.

 person who develops process plan: often called process planner
The purpose of process planning is to determine and describe the best
process for each job so that:

 (i) Specific requirements are established for which machines, tools and

other equipment can be designed or purchased.

 (ii) The efforts of all engaged in manufacturing are co-ordinated.

 (iii) A plan is made to show the best way to use the existing or proposed

facilities.
 Functions included in process planning:

 Raw material preparation

 Processes selection

 Process sequencing

 Machining parameter selection

 Tool path planning

 Machine selection

 Fixture selection
 Factors Affecting Process Plan Selection:
 Shape
 Tolerance
 Surface finish
 Size
 Material type
 Quantity
 Value of the product
 Urgency
 Manufacturing system itself
 Two approaches to carry out task of process planning:
 Manual Process Planning
 Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP)
Some necessary steps to prepare a process plan
1. Study overall shape of the part on the drawing. Use this information to
classify the part and determine the type of workstation needed.

2. Determine the best raw material shape to use.

3. Determine the setups.

4. Select machines for each setup.

5. Determine the operations necessary to create all the features for each
setup.
6. Sequence the operations determined in the previous step.

7. Select tools for each operation. Try to use the same tool for several operations
if it is possible. Keep in mind the trade off on tool change time and estimated
machining time.

8. Select or design fixtures for each setup.

9. Evaluate the plan generate thus far and make necessary modifications.

10. Select cutting parameters for each operation.

11. Prepare the final process plan document., i.e Route sheet
 Bill of materials is a tabular statement specifying all the components required for completing
an assembly or sub-assembly. The items listed in a bill of materials are :
 (i) Name of individual part, and No. required to complete an assembly and material of the
part.
 (ii) Whether the individual parts are to be manufactured from within or whether it is to be
bought out. If the part is a standard item (e.g. bolts, nuts, bearings, washers, rubber/plastic
moulded parts) it can be bought out economically than making it in the shop.
 (iii) Name of engineer preparing the BOM, date of preparation and his signature. Bill of
materials enables planning for items to be manufactured in house, raw material required and
planning for procurement of bought out items and for making cost estimates. BOM is also
known as parts list and is generally incorporated in the drawing of assembly or subassembly.
 Production Planning and Control Department uses BOM for deciding
manufacturing and scheduling dates.
 Process planners/Process engineers use it to know for what parts process
planning is to be carried out.
 Process planners and methods engineers (industrial engineering dept.) uses
BOM in estimating standard time and time allowances (cycle time) for
manufacturing and assembly operations.
 Purchase and Stores Department compiles several BOM’s and orders
purchasing of all standard items so that these parts are made available at the
time of assembly.
 The whole information determined by the process planning is recorded in a tabular form in a
sheet called process planning sheet. This document is provided to the shop personnel for their
use. The character of this sheet will vary for different organizations depending upon the
production conditions and degree of details required. In general the following data is listed
for each component of the product in the process sheet.
 (i) Information regarding the main product, of which the component being manufactured is a
part i.e., name and part number of the main product.
 (ii) Name, part number, drawing number of the component and number off i.e., no. of
components required per product.
 (iii) Information concerning the blank i.e., raw material used, size and weight of stock.

 (iv) Operations are listed in proper sequence along with the shops in which these operations
will be performed.
 (v) Information regarding machines used for each operation.

 (vi) Data on jigs, fixtures and other special tools required.

 (vii) Inspection devices needed for inspection.

 (viii) Cutting data i.e., speeds, feeds & depth of cut for each machining
operation.
 (ix) Elements of standard time such as set-up time, handling time and
machining time for the job. A typical process sheet is shown in Table below
 The process planning sheet is prepared by the process engineer in consultation
with the tool engineer, industrial engineer, or methods engineer.
PROCESS PLANNING SHEET
 The whole information determined by the process planning is recorded in a tabular form in a sheet
called process planning sheet. This document is provided to the shop personnel for their use.
 The character of this sheet will very for different organizations depending upon the production
conditions and degree of details required
Route Sheet
 The Route Sheet is a listing of the sequence of operations which must be performed on the work
part.
 It is called Route Sheet, because it lists the machines (machine tools) through which the part must
be routed in order to accomplish the sequence of operations.
 Process planner must have following knowledge:

 Requirements in manual process planning

 Ability to interpret an engineering drawing

 Familiarity with manufacturing processes and practice

 Familiarity with tooling and fixtures

 Know what resources are available in the shop

 Know how to use reference books (e.g. machinability data handbooks)

 Ability to do computations on machining time and cost

 Familiarity with raw materials

The traditional approach

 identifies similar parts (from memory or from a code book), and

manually retrieving process plans for these similar parts.

 A new process plan is then created by modifying and adapting the old

one to meet the special requirements of the new print.

 In this approach, the process planner may consult the supervisor in the

production shop to find out how the part is actually being processed
(materials, machines, processes, tooling, fixtures etc.)
Workbook approach

 This approach constructs a workbook containing a menu of prestored

sequences for operations for given types of workpieces.

 So when manufacturing processes are identified that are needed for a

certain part, you can then choose an appropriate operations sequence

from the workbook.
 The main advantages of the manual approaches are low investment and flexibility.

 Some disadvantages of the manual approaches to process planning include

» very time consuming

» easy to make mistakes

» lack of consistency among process plans prepared by different individuals

and

» the difficulty of updating a manual file to reflect new processes and

tooling.
End of chapter one