A production system having a plurality of manufacturing means (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D), wherein products are manufactured by moving on a production line according to a predetermined recipe (50) which uniquely describes a production order for a product (402); the manufacturing sequence being described in the recipe (50) in each manufacturing stage by a function name indicating which manufacturing means can handle the given work and a work instruction for the manufacturing means, comprising: a plurality of control units (408A, 408B, 408C, 408D) each having a storage unit (482) having work areas for a product agent (404), a precursor agent (409), a backward agent (410) and a machine agent (481A , 481B, 481C, 481D), wherein each control unit (408A, 408B, 408C, 408D) is connected to a network (405) and each having a manufacturing means (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D), wherein for each of the manufacturing means (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) a machine agent (481A, 481B, 481C, 481D) is provided, which is provided with a ...