This special report with user-friendly software has been produces following a collaboration between the Centre for Adhesives technology at TWI, Cranfield University and the DTI. The three-year project identified that highlighting design and production issue during very early stages of design enabled potential problem areas to be recognised and avoided. The team have therefore developed a generic quality assurance model to pinpoint the issues needing to be addressed well before a component reaches the production stage.The software is extremely user-friendly and comes with a flexible menu selection which enables the model to be customised to particular manufacturing requirements. It will be widely welcomed by designers and engineers involved with any products using adhesives or sealants.