Set-up families with associated set-ups are provided for populating printed circuit boards by means of a pick-and-place line. Printed circuit board types are associated with each set-up family and component types are associated with each set-up, such that a printed circuit board of a printed circuit board type in a set-up family is populated on the pick-and-place line by means of components of the component types associated with the set-up. Stocks of components of the component types of a set-up are provided by means of set-up tables on the pick-and-place line. A method for populating the printed circuit boards includes the steps of detecting printed circuit board types of which printed circuit boards are intended to be populated with components of associated component types, of associating detected printed circuit board types with a predetermined number of set-up families, and of optimizing the association operation with respect to a predetermined criterion.