Successful manufacturing system designs must be capable of satisfying the strategic objectives of a company. There exist numerous tools to design manufacturing systems. Most frameworks, however, do not separate objectives from means. As a result, it is difficult to understand the interactions among different design objectives and solutions and to communicate these interactions. The research described in this paper develops an approach to help manufacturing system designers: (1) clearly separate objectives from the means of achievement, (2) relate low-level activities and decisions to high-level goals and requirements, (3) understand the interrelationships among the different elements of a system design, and (4) effectively communicate this information across a manufacturing organization. This research does so by describing a manufacturing system design decomposition (MSDD). The MSDD enables a firm to simultaneously achieve cost, quality, delivery responsiveness to the customer and flexibility objectives. The application section illustrates how the MSDD can be applied in conjunction with existing procedural manufacturing engineering.

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