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This paper aims to develop an easily reconfigurable assembly cell.

Some functions are implemented to resolve problems associated with physical reconfiguration of an agent‐based robotic assembly cell, such as position calibration and workspace allocation.

The implemented prototype assembly cell is composed of industrial manipulators and a belt conveyor. Installation of a new manipulator and assembly execution are successfully demonstrated on the prototype cell.

In the developed assembly system, installation and removal of assembly devices are easily performed so that it can adapt to changes in the manufacturing environment quickly.

The developed system does not use specially designed hardware. Easy reconfiguration is enabled using conventional devices such as manipulators and belt conveyors.

Combined offerings of products and services, that is, a product‐service system (PSS), have been attracting much attention. Consequently, a good design methodology of services as well as that of manufacturing products is needed. The purpose of this paper, is to propose a method for estimating customer satisfaction that enables designers to compare design solutions in the conceptual stage.

In the proposed method, first, the models that represent PSS features with relation to a customer's state is adopted. Then, the authors propose the estimation procedure that utilises a non‐linear value function called the satisfaction‐attribute (S‐A) function to quantify customer satisfaction.

The proposed method centres on the estimation of customer satisfaction. It enables the designers to evaluate design candidates in the conceptual stage where little information is available, and therefore supports iterative improvements without the designer needing to hesitate under the weight of market analysis.

In this paper, the estimation is limited to a single transaction with a customer, rather than cumulative satisfaction that represents a customer's imprints about the provider accumulated by repeating purchases. In future, therefore, the authors need to integrate the concept of effects over time such as loyalty and defection into the proposed framework.

In the application, the proposed method is statistically proven to effectively illustrate customer satisfaction.

This paper proposes the estimation method of customer satisfaction for PSS design. The proposed method allows designers to choose a design solution from the customer viewpoints.