Selection of Non-Traditional Machining Processes Using Quality Function Deployment

The intricacy involved in selecting an optimal non-traditional machining (NTM) process for machining a desired feature on a given material demands automating the decision making process. This paper employs a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) based expert system to quantify various factors involved in the complex decision making problem of selecting the optimal NTM process. The expert system not only automates the decision making process but also uses Its Inbuilt graphical user interfaces and visual aids to enable proper interpretation of the results. The approach includes the use of a simplified House of Quality (HOQ) matrix to compare the desired product characteristics with the technical characteristics of the NTM processes to develop individual scores for the technical characteristics of each of the NTM processes for generating a specific shape feature on a given material. The Individual scores are added to obtain the overall suitability scores for the NTM processes. Ultimately, among the NTM processes which satisfy some critical criteria, the process with the highest overall score is accepted as the optimal choice for a particular material and shape feature combination.