Control of a chain of machines, including an additive manufacturing machine, in the manufacture of a workpiece

A non-transient data carrier having machine-readable instructions stored thereon, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• (i) receive a model based definition (MBD) of a workpiece comprising geometric dimensions and tolerances;
• (ii) receive inputs setting an additive build design for building the workpiece based upon the geometric dimensions;
• (iii) generate additive instructions for an additive manufacturing machine of a manufacturing chain based upon the additive build design;
• (iv) determine a prospective intermediate workpiece product expected from an additive build in accordance with the additive build design;
• (v) determine differences between the prospective intermediate workpiece product and the model based definition of the workpiece;
• and
• (vi) generate further instructions for at least one further machine of the manufacturing chain based upon the differences,
• wherein step (v) is carried out after step (iv), and
• the at least one further machine comprises a machine located downstream of the additive manufacturing machine in the manufacturing chain.