Design Wisdom of Production System Designers

Efficient production systems are necessary for the realization of products that fulfil customer needs and delivery requirements. Generally, the task of designing production systems belongs to the Production Engineering field. The system design work is, therefore, often managed and performed by production engineers at manufacturing plants with the support of relevant expertise from other disciplines. The paper discusses the production system design process from different perspectives such as how the design work is planned and performed, and by whom. The focus is put on the system designers and how to compose and manage a design team, the impact of the system designers, choice of internal or external designers, and use of analytical and creative abilities when designing. Furthermore, different perspectives and attitudes affecting the system design preconditions are identified and analysed, and the topic of design wisdom is discussed.