A Decision Support System for Process Planning and Control of Polyurethane Foam Production

A Decision Support System for Process Planning and Control of Polyurethane Foam Production

Major sections involved in the production of Polyurethane foam are: Chemical reactions, raw material formulations, heat transfer during curing stage, and the temperature conditioning of the chemicals, and these are the major problems in the optimal production of Polyurethane foam. A Polyurethane foam industry in, was used as the case study for this research work. Data for process planning, manufacturing, and cost of polyurethane foam were collected, complimented by extensive literature survey carried out both from the library and through direct interview from domain expert. The data collected were used to model polyurethane foam process planning, raw material combination formulation, and manufacturing cost computation. A comprehensive flow chart for process planning and cost estimation of polyurethane foam was designed. This was used to develop a decision support system (DSS) for process planning and control of Polyurethane Foam production.