System 2 coordinates the operational elements so that they do not interfere or destroy each other. System 3 ensures that operational elements together daily and efficently produce what they are supposed to produce. System 4 sees that the organisation also in the future will produce what the environment needs in the correct way. System 5 mediates the actions of System 4 and System 3 towards the identity of the organisation as a whole. Miller's critical subsystems and Beers Systems 1-5 all need to be present in order for the system to survive as an identifiable system.
Production goes on at the lowest level of a system.
Together they can be seen as embedded into each other. In fact in an organisation on the lowest level System 1 is made up of many operations each embedded in an environment having a local managment steered by this management's models. Each part is trying its best to optimise production through the local management and its models. But taken together they all interact both individually and in performance between each other. Secondly there will be contacts directly between operations which will affect the individual operational performance, however, this may be different to that intended by its local management.