How to create customized Android System Images from the AOSP?

I have already created the default Android system i开发者_开发百科mages (like userdata.img, system.img, ramdisk.img) by following the instructions at Android page.

What I would like to create is customized Android system images from AOSP(by removing the apps & their code-dependencies, which are unnecessary for my target board, like the e-mail, browser) & run it on my target board so as to reduce the foot-print of the resulting system images & also speed-up the boot-up time of the target board.

Any pointers to do above mentioned customizations are welcome.

Edit this Makefile: build/target/product/generic.mk and remove the packages from the list. I won't bother going into how to compile, etc. Please note that doing this will not remove the code dependencies of the packages (you'll have to modify API in dalvik/ or frameworks/ which could get hairy), but it will eliminate the packages that are incorporated in the system image.