The reuse of assembly equipment allows the exploitation of its unused potential, thus complying with both the economic objective of a high level of cost efficiency and the ecological objective of a high level of resource efficiency. Surveys have revealed manifold challenges for practitioners. Lack of experiences with the reuse process, the insufficiently designed and prepared equipment, missing life-cycle documentation as well as missing holistic planning concepts for the reuse where identified as main obstacles. In order to meet these challenges, a framework consisting of methods, tools and business process reference models for assembly equipment reuse is proposed. The core element is a computer aided reuse planning application that allows planners to generate reuse options and provides decision support during the planning process. The knowledge based approach, including its structure and core inference processes, which support the application is explained. The service oriented architecture for the realization of the framework is presented. The knowledge base ontology concept consisting of knowledge domain, role and user specific ontologies as well as the key ontology concepts, e.g. the failure mode concepts according to the FMEA, were elaborated. The computer based inference procedure of specifying adaptation processes to enhance and ensure the suitability of equipment for reuse enables the detailed generation of adaptation process plans. The proposed service oriented architecture utilizes the advantages of the ontology language OWL as well as the advantages of collaborative design environments. Forthcoming research will apply this methodology to further application in the automotive, aeronautics and household appliance industry.