Research article Towards Web-enabled design of modular assembly systems Niels Lohse Svetan Ratchev and George Valtchanov The authors Niels Lohse, Svetan Ratchev and George Valtchanov are all based at the School of Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing Engineering and Management, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. Keywords Assembly, Work stations, Manufacturing systems, Design of work Abstract 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. Electronic access The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0144-5154.htm Introduction Driven by the need for mass customisation and increasingly shorter product life cycles manufacturers are constantly seeking more effective ways of utilising their often expensive automation equipment to achieve shorter times to volumes and better return of investments. Currently, there is a strong trend towards the development of precision assembly systems that can be rapidly configured and reconfigured using standardised modules (Onori et al., 2002). One of the crucial factors for the success of such solutions is the availability of methods and tools that could allow a rapid design of assembly systems with complex user requirements and stringent performance metrics. Owing to the level of complexity and the time compressed nature of the decision-making process there is a need for computerised methods to aid and automate the design process of such assembly systems. The definition of assembly systems involves a number of different stakeholders often at different geographical locations. To achieve an improved and more effective assembly system design process there is a need for introduction of ever more integrated and concurrent design approaches. A key enabler in achieving this is the development of an integrated and distributed design framework that will allow the geographically dispersed stakeholders to simultaneously participate in the process of assembly system design. Traditionally, the decision-making steps in the assembly systems design process can be grouped into three stages (Rampersad, 1994). It starts with the definition of the product which needs to be assembled, continues with the specification of the processes needed to assemble that product, and finishes with the design of an assembly system capable of delivering the required processes. Substantial research effort has been dedicated to the planning of assembly processes based on product models (Chen et al., 2004; Eng et al., 1999; Homem de Mello and Lee, 1991; Niu et al., 2003; Sunil and Pande, 2004). The design process of assembly systems based on formalised product Assembly Automation Volume 24 · Number 3 · 2004 · pp. 270–279 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0144-5154 DOI 10.1108/01445150410549764 Received: 29 April 2004 Accepted: 5 May 2004 This work is partially funded by the Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom as part of the EUREKA Factory E!2851 E-RACE project the support of which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are grateful for the contributions of all members of the project team and particularly would like to acknowledge the valuable input of H. Hirani and A. Chrisp. 270