Integrated design and assembly planning

Abstract Europe's consumer goods industries are characterized by a high share of assembly cost in the total product costs (up to 40%). Product and assembly costs are mainly determined at the design stage in terms of materials, product structure, geometry, tolerances, and other product and design features. The Integrated Design and Assembly Planning (IDAP) project was generated to help designers and planners create solutions which were right-first-time. Support will be given by methodologies and computer aided tools such as the DFA methodology, but their organizational view may be even more important. This paper outlines the specification work for IDAP, which is based on a market study and a conceptual definition, and includes the Functional, Technical/Methodical Reference, Hardware/Software Reference, and the Organization Reference Models, and the development of a user interface prototype.