Intelligent Optimization of Process Plans

In the modern computer-integrated manufacturing system (CIMS), the CAPP system plays an important role (Zhang et al. in IEEE Trans Evol Comput 1:278–289 [1]). Generally, process planning involves two activities: operation determining and operation sequencing. In CAPP systems, these two activities must be executed simultaneously to achieve a good solution. Thus far, some effort has been made to address this problem, for instance, by designing a more feasible mathematical model or developing a more efficient approach.