New, global and extended markets are forcing companies to process and manage increasingly different products with shorter life cycles, low volumes and reduced customer delivery times. In today's global marketplace production systems need to deliver products on time, maintain market credibility, and introduce new products and services faster than competitors. As a result, a new production system paradigm has been developed and a supporting management decision-making approach, which simultaneously incorporates design, management, and control of the production system, is necessary in order...