The author explores the possibility of using case-based reasoning (CBR) techniques to handle search in assembly sequence generation (ASG). CBR solves a new problem by retrieving from its case library a solution which has solved a similar problem in the past and then adapting the solution to the new problem. To illustrate how the system works, two experiments are described to show how a case-based search derived from a time-consuming spatial problem in ASG, the receptacle device, can be efficiently applied to two similar problems: a ball-point pen assembly and a complicated industrial assembly.