The growth of simulation technology in manufacturing industries hascome at a time when computer hardware has experienced dramatic pricereduction and speed increases. Better graphical user interfaces in commercial modelling tools have made this technology easy to use covering a wide spectrum of needs including day to day engineering needs at one end and high end research related to process design and materials research on the other end. The growth is further compounded by the increase in industry demand for such tools while under constant need for efficient process design cycles and product quality requirements.

The ability to analyze complex processes has opened up additional avenues for the application of simulation tools in manufacturing. Among the any areas of applications, current modelling technology is discussed here in selected areas of manufacturing such as forming, machining and process optimization.