This paper deals with the link between manufacturing strategy and the design of production management systems, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. We present a framework for relating the manufacturing strategy to the design of production management systems, based on theoretical approaches in the literature. The factors that influence the decisions to be made when designing such systems are identified. Furthermore, we apply the framework to four manufacturing frrms. The results of this exploratory empirical study indicate the applicability and usefulness of the concepts in the theoretical framework.