STEPMAN aims to develop an integrated product lifecycle management solution based on STEP and STEP-NC standards to increase competitiveness among European machine and mechanical manufacturing SMEs. The objectives are to create a manufacturing platform allowing smooth data exchange between CAD/CAM systems and CNC machines to promote flexibility within and between SMEs, reduce process planning cycles, and increase their competitiveness. STEPMAN will use STEP and STEP-NC standards to allow product and machining data transfer between various CAD/CAM software in a bidirectional flow for a more flexible design process.

1. www.stepman.eu
What is STEPMAN?
Development of a STEP and STEP-NC standard based integrated product lifecycle management
solution to increase the competitiveness of European machine and mechanical manufacturing
SMEs.
What are the objectives of STEPMAN?
To create a manufacturing platform that will allow smooth data exchange between CAD/CAM
systems and CNC machines to promote flexibility within and between SMEs to increase their
competitiveness and to reduce the process planning cycle.
Interoperability between CAx Systems
STEPMAN will use the STEP (ISO10303) and
STEP-NC (ISO14649) standards which is rich in
manufacturing information to allow the
product and machining data to be transferred
between various CAD/CAM software.
STEPMAN will make the current unidirectional
data flow redundant and replace it with a
bidirectional flow that will create a much more
flexible and optimised design process that is
not restricted to any one CAD/CAM or CNC
system.
CAM
CAM
CAD
CAD
CNC
CNC
CNC

2. www.stepman.eu
Large Enterprise SME - AG
SME SME
Increasing the Competitiveness of SMEs
STEPMAN will increase the competitiveness of
individual SMEs with respect to larger
organisations by easily combining the
manufacturing capabilities of a group of SMEs as
well as reducing the time and cost of production
and quality control.
A large manufacturing order can be split and spread
between the various SMEs in an association
depending on the available manufacturing
capabilities of each individual SME. STEPMAN also
ensures that suppliers within a supply chain
produce exactly the required parts
Ability to Reuse Legacy NC Programs
STEPMAN will allow for older legacy NC
programs that run on specific CNC machines or
controllers that are no longer available to be
used on any current machine.
Old NC programs will be read by STEPMAN and
interpreted to generate a new NC program for
any new CNC machine or new CNC controller
that is available on the shop floor while using
the full capacity of the new machine.
Old CNC Machine
Old NC Programme
New CNC Machines