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ABSTRACT. THE PRESENT WORK IS CONCERNED WITH COMPUTER-AIDED PROCESS PLANNING. THE CONCEPT OF CONSTRAIN IS PRESENTED AND PROPOSED AS AN INVALUABLE TOOL TO BUILDING A EXPERT SYSTEM FOR AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENT. UNFORTUNATELY, ROBUST MATHEMATICAL MODELS ARE VERY SCARCELY IN THE MANUFACTURING FIELD. THEREFORE, TO FACE THIS PROBLEM, IT WAS PROPOSED AN HYBRID APPROACH WHICH COMBINES MATHEMATICAL MODELS (WHEN AVAILABLE) AND QUALITATIVE CONSTRAINS REPRESENTED AS CAUSE-EFFECT RELATIONS AMONG STRUCTURAL AND OPERATIONAL VARIABLES AND OPERATIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL ONES. THIS KIND OF FRAMEWORK HAS PROVIDE A POWERFUL AND VERY GENERAL METHOD (LIKE A SHELL) FOR PROCESS MODELLING. AT THE PRESENT STAGE OF IMPLEMENTATION, CUTTING CONDITIONS FOR MACHINING PROCESSES CAN BE SELECTED, NOT TO MINIMIZE (OU MAXIMIZE) AN OBJECTIVE FUNCTION, BUT TO SATISFY ALMOST ALL THE CONSTRAINS FROM THE PROCESS ITSELF, PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS AND PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE. IN THAT WAY, THE SYSTEM PROPOSED PROVIDE A NEAR INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT.
KEY WORDS: PROCESS PLANNING, EXPERT SYSTEMS, MACHINING
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