The authors conclude that it is often cost-effective to combine assembly and inspection functions of a manufacturing process. It may demand a change in philosophy in which the correct assembly process is detailed and each stage of operations is automatically checked as part of the assembly routine before making decisions on continuing or abandoning further operations on the work piece. It is only in recent years that the flexibility and power of intelligent controllers have enabled this complete integration of assembly and inspection functions. But this does not mean that the results can be achieved only with highly complex and expensive electronic processors. With good system design, controllers can - and should - be simple and straightforward logic circuits, and can be based on electronics or pneumatics.