A three stage approach to the development of multi-agent systems is proposed involving functional decomposition, agent representation, and information flow integration. The information flow integration stage is discussed in detail. A rule-based agent integration for construction of autonomous subsystems and systems useful in integrated manufacturing is presented. The approach formalizes the integration process that a system analyst solves in anad hocmanner. The approach presented facilitates the discovery of new integrated manufacturing solutions. It involves generation of a set of autonomous agents for building an overall system. Hierarchically structured subsystems are developed at different levels of abstraction that parallel the approach used by an expert system analyst. The implementation of an integration process in an object-oriented programming environment is also suggested.