Towards Web-enabled design of modular assembly systems

The development of reconfigurable modular production systems is one of the crucial factors for manufacturers to sustain their competitive advantage in areas such as precision assembly. To ensure the effective and cost efficient configuration and successive reconfigurations it is of critical importance to involve all stakeholders in the decision-making process. The reported research is targeting the development of an integrated Web-enabled decision-making environment that supports some of the key assembly system engineering stages from user requirement specification to system implementation. The focus is on the design of assembly workstations based on detailed process requirements with a target of developing highly efficient and cost-effective solutions. The paper presents an application framework for collaborative distributed design supported by domain ontologies and is illustrated using an industrial case study.