Diploma Thesis from the year 1999 in the subject Engineering - Mechanical Engineering, grade: 1, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, language: English, abstract: The following thesis elucidates the impact of the product design and the product development process on the design of a manufacturing system. In contrast to integrate constraints and restrictions of the manufacturing system and its processes into the initial design of a product, attributes and characteristics of the product design are analyzed by the way they influence and restrict the design of a manufacturing system. The upcoming hypothesis of this thesis claims latter approach to be the natural and logical one. A sophisticated design theory known as Axiomatic Design [Suh 1990] is used to embed the design of a manufacturing system into the design of the product and the product development system. The generic derivation of such an integrated design framework will allow a broad application to manufacturing and product development system design. The following paragraph outlines the background and the issues related to the motivation for this thesis. In the next step, the thesis objectives and hypothesis are stated, marking the scope and content of this academic discussion. Finally, a brief overview is provided about the content and structure of each chapter.