Usage of SoS methodologies in production system design

Production systems design is a multifaceted task, due to a variety of aspects such as the mutual interdependency between the sub‐systems, the variety of configurations and alternative system control strategies, the multiple managerial and ‘soft’ aspects that cast an influence on the behavior of the system. A reasonable number of modeling tools can be applied to production system design, but they tend to divide the problem into unconnected sub‐problems whose individual solutions may result in a poor global one. This is despite the fact that production design encompasses all aspects of manufacturing operations, and needs a systemic approach, as clearly shown in practitioner‐oriented literature. This paper proposes to apply the ‘System of Systems’ approach to production system design in order to represent their main aspects and support the rational definition of the path leading from corporate strategy to system (re)design.