Manufacturing Technology Today

Shankar Chakraborty ¹, Sammilan Dey ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata - 700 032, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The intricacy involved in selecting an optimal non-traditional machining (NTM) process for machining a desired feature on a given material demands automating the decision making process. This paper employs a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) based expert system to quantify various factors involved in the complex decision making problem of selecting the optimal NTM process. The expert system not only automates the decision making process but also uses Its Inbuilt graphical user interfaces and visual aids to enable proper interpretation of the results. The approach includes the use of a simplified House of Quality (HOQ) matrix to compare the desired product characteristics with the technical characteristics of the NTM processes to develop individual scores for the technical characteristics of each of the NTM processes for generating a specific shape feature on a given material. The Individual scores are added to obtain the overall suitability scores for the NTM processes. Ultimately, among the NTM processes which satisfy some critical criteria, the process with the highest overall score is accepted as the optimal choice for a particular material and shape feature combination.

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Shankar Chakraborty ¹, Sammilan Dey ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032, IN

Abstract

Selection of a non-traditional machining process is always deemed to be a challenging problem due to the involvement of various conflicting criteria in the decision-making process. This paper strives to use the multi-criteria decision-making approach towards the selection of an optimal non-traditional machining process under constrained material and machining conditions through the design of an expert system. The expert system relies on the analytic hierarchy process to evaluate the priority index values for different non-traditional machining processes, based on several criteria and sub-criteria involved in the selection process. The expert system also takes the help of an inbuilt logical database to demarcate the non-traditional processes that are actually acceptable for a specific condition. Acceptability Index values are determined for the processes lying in the acceptability zone and the process with the highest acceptability index value is selected as the optimal choice.

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