Managing Process Plans
Process plans are the detailed description of what needs to be done on the shop floor in order to produce, inspect, repair, or maintain a given part or assembly. They contain the operations to be performed, the order in which they must be done, the physical resources, plants and skills required, document references, text description, and time and cost requirements.
Using process plans you can define:
• The operations needed to carry out the manufacturing of a product.
• The sequences in which these operations are carried out.
• The time, costs, and constraints for each operation.
• The physical resources and skills required to carry out operations.
• The parts required to manufacture the product, as well as where and how they are used during the manufacturing process.
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The navigation pane of the Process Plan Browser list all the operations associated with a process plan. Listed under each operation are the allocated processing resources, operated on parts and BOM allocated parts. Operated on parts are parts that you can allocate to a process plan, but which do not appear in the BOM of the associated assembly. Operated on parts only appear if the preference Show Part Allocations on Tree is set to Yes.
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Process plans are also used to create shop-floor Work Instructions. Work instructions are the step by step instructions that are used on the shop floor when producing, inspecting, repairing or maintaining parts. A work instruction is a dynamically generated HTML document that combines process plan information (sequences, operations, part allocations, resource allocations, time, etc.) and all related documents such as drawings, images and 3D sessions with annotations.
The level of detail that your process plan encompasses depends on the complexity of your product, and your processes. In general, process plans are created in conjunction with, or after you have defined the resources, parts, and standards used to make your product.
Defining a process plan typically involves the following steps, though not necessarily in the following order:
• Create a process plan using the New Process Plan action. This action can be found in the Actions menu of a product.
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You can also create a process plan using the Process Plan tab of the BOM Transformer. When you create a process plan using this tab, the process plan takes on the attributes of the part selected in BOM Transformer (such as Base Unit of Measure) and is automatically related to the part.
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• Define the operations that are used to complete the manufacturing of your product, using the Uses tab. See Creating and Managing Operations.
• Define the sequences in which these operations are to be carried out, including any alternate or parallel sequences. See Creating and Managing Sequences.
• Associate manufacturing capabilities to operations, using the Related tab of the Process Plan Browser, or by dragging and dropping using the Process Plan Browser. A manufacturing capability is a description of the manufacturing processes a company is able to perform, along with the documents and standard procedures that can be used in production to achieve that capability. Manufacturing capabilities list standardized and approved ways of producing a specific result with varied technical means and facilitate the re-use of process planning information.
• Define any constraints that need to be applied to an operation or operations, using the Related tab of the Process Plan Browser. For example, if an operation cannot begin until the previous operation has completed. You can also define lag times in your constraints, if, for example, there needs to be a set period of time before one operation can start, after another has finished (for example, to allow paint to dry).
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The process plan displayed at the top of the navigation pane is the main sequence.
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• Link a process plan to the part or assembly it describes how to produce. Process plans can be linked to a part or assembly in the following ways:
◦ Using the Related tab of the Process Plan Browser.
◦ Using the Process Plan tab of the BOM Transformer.
◦ Using the Tree Picker of the Process Plan Browser.
• Allocate parts from the BOM to operations in the process plan, or allocate operated on parts to operations in the process plan, using the Part Allocation tab. Parts must already have been created.
• Associate any documents you have that can be of use to those using the process plan, using the Documentation tab. For example, CAD documents, or photos.
• Define any related information that pertains to the process plan, using the Uses tab. This information could include sequences used during the process plan, standard procedures that are referenced by the process plan, or any parts that are associated with the process plan.
• Allocate the resources that are to be used in the manufacturing of your product, using the Resource Allocations tab, and the Plants tab. Resources must already have been created, using the MRB.
• Generate work instructions. A work instruction in Windchill MPMLink is a dynamically generated HTML page that combines process plans information (sequences, operations, part allocations, resource allocations, time, etc.) and all related documents such as drawings, images and 3D sessions with annotations. The work instruction is the main reference document used by the production operator to understand what exactly needs to be done in production. Work instructions display annotations against each representation for the operation. For more information, see Viewing a Work Instruction
• A routing plan is a subset of a process plan. Use the Open in Process Plan Browser action to open a process plan in context of a routing plan. For more information, see Opening Routing Plan in Process Plan Browser.