A quick response to John Womack's query:  
The best places to search for production theory are (1) in the areas of   
location theory and the role that distance from a central attractor plays in the   
pricing of locational assets (Georgist economics if you please), (2) in the   
study of agglomeration economies and industrial districts there is a wealth of   
information about patterns of production and scale economies, and last but not   
least, (3) when understanding the problem of open-access production situation   
a/k/a the "tragedy of the commons" a clear distinction needs to be made between   
diminishing returns and negative returns and how and why property rights   
arrangement encourage one result rather than another.  I might add also (4) the   
fledgling field of economic sociology where the idea that  social networks   
constitute also a sort of social capital that aid production is being developed with
ferocious speed by graduate students who understand the basic neoclassical
framework.  If this isn't a wonderful fruit-basket of ideas about production   
theory, then I do not know what is.  I am sure there are other areas in economics broadly
defined where production theory is discussed as well but here are some spontaneous
responses to the question asked.
  
I know that John Womack is interested in the role technological ideas play in   
economics.  I think that there is now a general consensus that engineers   
cannot really solve many "economic" problems because economic problems are about   
choosing and ranking priorities.  Engineering provides only one part and   
perhaps a tiny part of what we understand to be the economic calculation problem in
economics.
  
Laurence Moss