Autor: Fritz Klocke

An important step of the production planning phases is manufacturing chain planning. In this phase the sequence has to be defined, in which a product is manufactured. The step should preferably be realized during the design phase to give feedbacks for the design department at the right time to initiate potential product changes. The following article introduces a system, which generates manufacturing chains in consideration of cost and tolerances. The focus is avoiding too close and cost intensive tolerances already in early manufacturing phases.

The latest developments in the field of nano technology must not mislead to the impression that all challenges in the micro system technology (MST) are solved. As a matter of fact, right now new applications are causing novel technological challenges. In addition, the market of MST is still one of the most dynamic and will continue its growth within the next years. It is expected that the worldwide annual turnover will increase from 3.9 billion US$ (2002) to 8.3 billion US$ (2007) [1].

Productivity, quality, flexibility and manufacturing costs are not the only criteria for an effective manufacture. To keep competitiveness, a global optimum of the process chain for the manufacturing of an individual product has to be achieved, considering the existing manufacturing capabilities and innovative technologies. In this paper approaches for integrated technology planning are discussed, which are developed at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) in Aachen.