SUMMARY Rearranging component positions and orientations inside products can reduce the acquisition times associated with handling distance and component orientation. Modeling the acquisition process with an information-based design for assembly methodology identifies and quantifies acquisition difficulty for manual and automatic processes. Heuristics based on evaluations of acquisition difficulty guide the relocation and reorientation of components inside the product to reduce assembly time. Since acquisition time averages one third of the total assembly time, significant improvements are shown to be feasible. A new information flow from downstream assembly issues to product design is demonstrated