Automatic setup planning: current state-of-the-art and future perspective

Process planning has long been regarded as the key to achieving seamless integration between design and manufacturing. While there have been great successes in automating portions of the process planning task such as operation sequencing and cutter path optimisation, other areas such as automatic setup generation still remain elusive. This paper defines and elucidates setup planning by systematically decomposing this complex subject into tasks, constraints and the ultimate goal. Within the defined scope, this paper further reviews and analyses various automatic setup planning methods reported in the literature. A critical knowledge gap is identified, namely, the absence of a definition of setup plan optimality. A decision-aid-orientated perspective is then proposed to be applied in a technology hub-based supplier alliance environment.