The manufacturing system as a complex artifact

Complexity is identified as a distinguishing feature in the design of manuf acturing systems. Such complexity appears under a variety of aspects, which must all be taken into account in the structuring and the management of th is design activity. The paper discusses the complexities of the system bein g designed, of the set of resources involved, of the situation in which des ign occurs and, finally, of the design process, in order to show their rele vance to the subject. The paper then reviews a few proposals from literatur e upon complex design processes and discusses their applicability in the fi eld of manufacturing systems. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.