2.4.1 Productivity / Efficiency Flashcards
What is production
•Production is the total number of units produced in a given period of time
What’s the methods of production
Job
Batch
Flow
Cell
Describe Job production
Job production where items are made individually and each item is finished before the next one is started.
- The production of one off items to meet the needs of each individual customer
- Cheap and easy to set up, but more expensive to produce
- Often a specialist service
- Time consuming to produce
- Meet specific needs of customers
Advantages of job production
High quality
Producer meets individual need
Greater good satisfaction
Disadvantages of job production
Cost of producing one unit or job is highly labour intensive
Requires investment in skills and training
Potentially de motivating for staff as usually working in a big team
Describe batch production
- Identical items are produced in groups (batches), each item passing through the production process at the same time
- Allows for cheaper and quicker production of individual items
- More uniform products
- Variation can be achieved in different batches
Advantages of batch production
- Making in batches reduces unit costs
- Can still address specific customer needs (e.g. size, weight, style)
- Use of specialist machinery & skills can increase output and productivity
Disadvantages of batch production
- Time lost switching between batches – machinery may need to be reset
- Need to keep stocks of raw materials. Cash also investment in work-in-progress
Potentially de motivational as don’t see job through
Describe flow production
- Items flow along the production line in a continuous process
- Suitable for mass production
- Large scale
- Identical items
- Uses specialist machinery
- Workers are each responsible for a small step along the process, this involves
- Specialisation
- Division of Labour
Advantages of flow production
- Efficient process due to
- Specialisation of workers
- Division of labour
- Use of machinery
- Low cost per unit
- Consistent quality
- Continual output leading to less need to hold stock
Disadvantages of flow production
- High initial costs
- Machinery
- Computers
- Training
- Mistakes or problems can shut down whole process
- Repetitive work leading to low motivation
- Standardised products only
- Potentially de-motivating for staff as don’t get to see the job through or usually not working in a big team (social needs)
Describe cell production
- A form of flow production whereby the production line is split into a series of self contained cells
- Each cell takes responsibility for the production of complete units of output
- The members of the cell work as a team to achieve goals and ensure quality standards are met
- Increases quality, team work and motivation
- Depends upon staff being well trained
Cell production advantages
- Closeness of cell members should improve communication, avoiding confusion arising from misunderstood or non-received messages
- Workers become multi-skilled and more adaptable to the future needs of a business
- Greater worker motivation, arising from variety of work, team working (social needs) and more responsibility
- Quality improvements as each cell has ‘ownership’ for quality on its area
Cell production disadvantages
- The company culture has to encourage trust and participation, or workers can feel that they are being constantly pushed for more and more output with no respite
- The company may have to invest in new materials handling and ordering systems suitable for cell production
- Cell production may not allow a firm to use its machinery as intensively as in traditional flow production
- Some small scale production lines may not yield enough savings to make a switch cell production economically worthwhile
- The allocation of work to cells has to be efficient so that they have enough work, but not so much that they are unable to cope
What is production
Volume is output in a specific amount of time
