The research program Adaptive distributed manufacturing systems represents a research framework for structuring, control and operations of manufacturing systems. The key result of the program is the concept named Adaptive Distributed Manufacturing Systems (ADMS). The concept implies research into dynamic manufacturing structures, which are capable of being adapted to market excitations and disturbances from the environment. The results include: The generic model of elementary work systems is developed. The investigation of the human operator (subject) role, as well as the model for subject characterization is elaborated. The model for structuring of elementary work systems into a dynamic manufacturing structure in a nondeterministic environment is developed. The structuring process is based on self-organization and self-adaptation principles. The ADMS concept thus represents an important contribution in search for a new manufacturing paradigm. It is to be mentioned that the optimal decomposition of the manufacturing building blocks leads to minimization of the system complexity and thus to the optimal system structure. The structuring mechanism enables self-organization and adaptation of the system on changes in the environment. The generic statistical control low for partially distributed object is developed within focused research in control system design. The use of it enables effective control of manufacturing as well as energetic systems. The model is implemented in the welding process. The experiments performed on several case studies prove the results of the program.