A method for generating process chains for product manufacturing is provided. Accordance to this method, all available data pertaining to the component to be manufactured is collected and the component to be manufactured is subdivided into component elements which can be manufactured independently of one another. The method further includes collecting all possible core technologies for the individual process blocks, where the core technologies are generating all possible manufacturing process chains by combining all core technologies of one process block with the core technologies of the other process blocks, and reducing all possible manufacturing process chains to a subset of possible manufacturing process chains. This reduction is based upon geometric and/or technological boundary conditions. The method includes ascertains data pertaining to per-unit costs for the component to be manufactured, . The method then selects the optimum manufacturing process chain for the component, at least on the basis of the capital value calculations and the data pertaining to risk and/or reliability.