Description:The last decade has seen a rapid extension of electronic control devices for various types of technical products. In modern electronics manufacturing, highly automated assembly systems are used to mount the electronic components onto the printed circuit boards (PCBs). Maintaining high production flexibility in order to meet the desired product variety and, at the same time, achieving high utilization rates of the capital-intensive production equipment can only be achieved by applying highly sophisticated planning and control strategies for the operation of modern placement machines.