Companies are increasingly being forced by market demands to increase the competitiveness of their products in regard to price, quality and delivery time. Development, both of product and production, is the key word in achieving this goal. This paper focuses on the following related subject: cost-effective design, with applications to robotic assembly cells. Against this background, a total productivity model is introduced, which allows an opinion to be formed about the performance of robotic assembly cells during the conceptual stage of the design process.