Product designers are under increasing pressure to reduce lead time, improve quality and reduce cost of a product. An important approach is to generate not only design solutions of a component, but also manufacturing models for the component at the same time so that a designer can make design decisions whilst having access to evolving “virtual” manufacturing system models. This paper presents such an approach that proactively supports designers to make informed design decisions, by revealing knowledge of component related manufacturing and assembly processes. Knowing the manufacturing and assembly implications of design decisions during design, designers are aided to avoid negative implications and promote positive ones. Based on the approach a Knowledge Intensive CAD (KICAD) prototype tool, named FORESEE has been developed. FORESEE allows designers to foresee and explore manufacturing and assembly consequences caused by design decisions, co-evolving during mechanical component design decision making. The paper presents an outline of the KICAD’s approach, its architecture, system requirements of such a system and its implementation. The application of the prototype is also demonstrated through a thermoplastic component design session
