Selection of assembly system configurations: A decision support system

Abstract

Design of competitive and effective manufacturing and assembly systems has to take account of a large number of technical, human and economic parameters. Frequently this information is not readily available to the system designers. This paper describes the systemization of knowledge relating to the large number of technical and human parameters which can affect the choice of automated dedicated and automated programmable assembly systems. D~cision trees and production rules are used to link the different parameters. The structured knowledge, in the form of a prototype decision support system, has been validated using a number of case studies.