Design for assembly automation (DFAA) is an important part of the concurrent engineering strategy for reduction of product manufacturing costs and lead times. An intelligent knowledge-based system (KBS) for design for automation and early cost modelling within a concurrent engineering environment has been developed. This paper focuses upon the development of the design for an assembly automation system. The system framework encompasses an extensive knowledge-based reasoning system, a CAD system, a design analysis for automation module, a design improvement suggestion module, and a user interface. The development process of the system involved three main stages: creating the KBS, developing the design improvement module, and integrating the KBS with the CAD system. The developed system has the capability to: (a) select the most economic assembly technique for the product at an early design stage; (b) estimate the assembly time and cost for manual, automatic, and robotic assembly methods; and (c) analyse the product design for automation and provide the designers with design improvement suggestions of a product to simplify assembly operations without any compromise of the product functionality. The above capabilities of the system have been demonstrated and validated through a real case study.
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