Manufacturing system design is a process that often results in sub-optimized systems with less than intended performance. It is therefore of outmost importance to base the design on factors originating from a defined interested party and then translate them into performance shaping factors of a manufacturing system. Sometimes the complexity of the factors affecting the system takes over in the design process, making the designers, system builders and even the buyers forget about the initial requirements - customer demands. The manufacturing system design method presented in this paper is aimed at being simple enough to use, though providing accurate enough results by taking into account relevant system demands.