Abstract: Described is a Computer- Aided Process Planning methodology for concurrent engi-neering.The methodology uses the coneept of constraints to represent manufacturing rules and status of the manufacturing environment. The information of workpiece surfaces is extracted from a common database. All the possible machining activities for each of those surfaees are identified based on the database.Feasible alternative part process plans can then be generated by means of examining the possible machining activities all together and adding position related constraints under certain procedures. The CAPP methodology can produce part proeess plans at different design stages so that it is particularly useful in a concurrent engineering environment,where various process plans may be required as a resuIt of the large number of design changes made in early design stages. In addition, the alternative process plans provided by the methodology allow further optimizations in the concurrent engineering environment for dynamic scheduling, machine capacity balancing,etc.

Key words: computer aided manufacturing, systems integration, parallel processing