Title: Reverse engineering and rapid tooling as enablers of agile manufacturing

Authors: Spencer Onuh, Nick Bennett, Vince Hughes

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering, Regional Centre for Manufacturing Industries (RCMI), University of Portsmouth, Anglesea Road, Anglesea Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3DJ, UK. ' Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering, Regional Centre for Manufacturing Industries (RCMI), University of Portsmouth, Anglesea Road, Anglesea Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3DJ, UK. ' Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering, Regional Centre for Manufacturing Industries (RCMI), University of Portsmouth, Anglesea Road, Anglesea Building, Portsmouth, PO1 3DJ, UK

Abstract: Rapid response manufacturing is a new manufacturing pattern that can be used to implement the concept of agile design and manufacturing, but there are some new problems associated with it. Rapid Prototyping (RP) is one of the enablers of Reverse Engineering (RE). Two separate studies have been carried out to verify the degree of the activities of RP as an enabler of RE. Results show that the product development cycle and cost have been reduced and that data can be accurately transferred between the different equipment without additional new software. Hence, RP is an enabler of agile manufacturing.

Keywords: rapid prototyping; reverse engineering; agile manufacturing; CAD; data transfer; agility; rapid tooling; rapid response manufacturing; agile design; product development; cycle time reduction; cost reduction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2006.008859

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2006 Vol.1 No.1, pp.60 - 72

Published online: 31 Jan 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article