There are a number of significant technological advances which are giving a new shape to the face of manufacturing and also encouraging the paperless manufacturing atmosphere in which Computer Automated Process Planning (CAPP) plays an amazing and prominent role.

The ultimate reasons for this technology are decreasing the costs as it encourages the bond between the CAD and CAPP developers as well as access to manufacturing data. It is becoming easier to accomplish due to use of LANs and transfer of data from one point to another on the network. It also allows distributed data processing and data access.

Due to the introduction of computers in design and manufacturing, the process planning part needs to be automated. There are many shop trained people who are very well aware about the details of machining and other processes and gradually retiring and also would not be available in the future for doing these kinds of processes. There was necessity for an alternative way to accomplish this function, which was Computer Automated Process Planning (CAPP).

It was usually considered to be a part of computer aided manufacturing. However this computer aided manufacturing was the milestone and results when CAM is combined with CAD in order to create a CAD/CAM. This process is like a link between the design and manufacturing in the computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) atmosphere.

CAPP is being commonly used by manufacturing engineers in order to develop a product manufacturing plan which is based on projected variable like cost, lead times, equipment availability as well as potential material substitution routings etc.

Process planning is responsible for translating design information into the process steps and instructions for the efficient and effective manufacturing products. CAPP has evolved into simplifying and improving process planning as the design process is supported by many computer aided tools. It is also achieving more effective use of manufacturing resources.

It can encompass the activities and functions in order to prepare the detailed set of plans and instructions for producing a part. It begins with engineering drawings as well as specifications and parts and forecast of demand. Before CAPP, manufacturers used to attempt basic classification of parts in order to overcome the problem of manual process planning.

Initially the computer aided process evolved as a source to electronically store. Once a process plan was created, it can retrieve it as well as modify it for a new part and also prints the plan.