System and method for flexible manufacturing

A method for robotic manufacturing a product, the method comprising:

• analyzing, by a designer tool on a design computer, a product design of a product having parts and assemblies and a set of product requirements, the designer tool being coupled with a database storing information about robot tooling and robot tooling abilities that are available in a factory;
• determining, by the designer tool, a sequence of robot tooling abilities from the available robot tooling abilities for moving, machining and assembling the parts and the assemblies to manufacture the product that meets the set of product requirements;
• determining, by the designer tool, available tooling options for the robot tooling abilities that can be used to manufacture the product that meets the set of product requirements;
• displaying on a user interface of the design computer the determined sequence of the robot tooling abilities for manufacturing the product and the available tooling options;
• enabling a user to select some of the displayed options through the user interface of the design computer;
• creating, by the designer tool, control codes for manufacturing the product by the robot tooling in the factory using the sequence of the robot tooling abilities and the selected options;
• simulating, by a simulator on the design computer, a manufacture of the product by virtual robot tooling using the created control codes;
• verifying, by the simulator, that the created control codes provide for correct manufacture of the product;
• and
• manufacturing the product by the robot tooling in the factory using the created control codes.