THE EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER ASSISTED PRODUCT DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING TOOLS TO SMART SYSTEMS FOR THE FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE

Design and manufacturing are nowadays universally recognized as interconnected and designers need to consider since the first phases of a new product concept, material characteristics and production technologies, in order to optimize the whole industrial product development process. Information and Communication Technology and in particular Computer Assisted Product Design and Manufacturing Tools are helpful to this aim. In order to achieve a smart design and a smart production, designers and engineers can take advantage from these systems, optimizing time and costs and being able to better concentrate on creative aspects of their tasks. This paper analyses the evolution of CAD, CAE and CAM systems from the Knowledge Based Engineering of the early 1980s through the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) techniques to the present Modelling Approach. Considerations on Smart Systems for Industry 4.0 and on the possible evolution of Computer Assisted Product Design and Manufacturing Tools, which shall be progressively more integrated in the factory management, will be presented. A comparison table between different design-manufacturing approaches will be introduced in order to evaluate points of strengths and weakness of each and to achieve significant conclusions on the effectiveness and efficiency of these systems and on their smartness.