Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing

9Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)

9.1 Introduction

In a manufacturing system, the raw materials are transformed into finished products through a series of manufacturing processes, which are performed at production facilities. Figure 9.1 shows the transformation of a manufacturing system (Groover 2007). A manufacturing system is represented by a number of major activities in an information flow and a material flow. An information flow describes all of the decision‐making activities involved in a product lifecycle. A material flow describes the transportation from raw materials, pre‐fabricates, parts, components, and integrated objects to finished products as a flow of entities. Production facilities are the hardware components that make