THE ELECTRONICS COMPUTER AIDED PROCESS PLANNING (ECAPP) SYSTEM IS A RULES AND FRAMES-BASED GENERATIVE PROCESS PLANNING SYSTEM FOR THE ASSEMBLY OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS ONTO PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS. ECAPP USES EXPERT PROCESS ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE, A MANUFACTURING PLANT'S SPECIFIC PROCESS CAPABILITIES, AND PRODUCT INFORMATION FROM A CAD DATABASE TO GENERATE ALL OF THE FEASIBLE PROCESS ROUTES FOR A PRODUCT THROUGH A FACTORY. ECAPP THEN RECOMMENDS THAT BEST ROUTE AND GENERATES THE NUMERICAL CODE FOR THE AUTOMATIC ASSEMBLY EQUIPMENT. ECAPP ALSO CHECKS MODULE MANUFACTURABILITY AND ALLOWS MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS TO SIMULATE PRODUCT ASSEMBLY USING A RULES-BASED SIMULATION BEFORE RELEASING A PRODUCT TO THE FLOOR.