A method for designing manufacturing systems with speed, flexibility, continuity includes identifying design issues with respect to at least one system concern (e.g., safety, reliability, quality, etc.) at the beginning of the design process. Proposed designs are evaluated according to simultaneous and sequential criteria both during a preliminary stage, before a supplier has been selected, and after a selected supplier offers a more detailed design for the manufacturing equipment. The activities and associated consequences associated with maintaining and operating the equipment being designed are identified and paired together into activity/consequence pairs. An optimized solution is determined for each individual activity/consequence pair and incorporated in the manufacturing equipment's design. After the manufacturing equipment is built, a validation process confirms that the process considerations and process solutions with respect to the particular system concern have been resolved in the final product. By considering process issues early in the design stage, the manufacturing equipment is less likely to require retrofitting in response to process issues discovered later after the manufacturing equipment has been built.