Production development has for decades concentrated on incremental improvements by exploiting existing manufacturing knowledge to improve existing production systems or adapt them for new product developments. Building up an “ambidextrous innovation” ability, and more specifically in increasing focus on explorative production innovation, is important to balance production development efforts and obtain sustainable development of production. This paper aims to provide a conceptual framework for “ambidextrous production innovation” that conceptualizes and highlights phenomenon characteristics from exploitative and explorative perspectives. The conceptual framework describes “production innovation” as the process of either increasing or developing a new production capability, enabling opportunities for new product designs. This process can be either “product-driven” or “production-driven” depending on the primary objective of the development.