(Industry Study) — Technical Factors

Question 1

Production techniques

Answer 1

Involves looking at how a product is made.

Question 2

Mass production

Answer 2

The production of large amounts of standardised products.

Question 3

Specialisation

Answer 3

The separation of tasks within a system into areas of expertise.
People may specialise in one or more areas of expertise;
- Audio editor
- Video editor
- Animator (2D / 3D)
- Graphic designer
- Web developer

Question 4

Mechanisation

Answer 4

Providing human operators with machinery that assists them with the muscular requirements of work.
It may also be the process of developing machinery to perform tasks that were once manual.
Mechanisation can also assist with mass production of products & improve product efficiency.

Question 5

Advantages of mechanisation

Answer 5

• Large production at faster rate
• Products are not altered and remains accurate to original design.
• Can work in areas where workers risk injury (lift heavy equipment, work with chemicals)

Question 6

Disadvantages of mechanisation

Answer 6

• Initial cost of machinery is expensive.
• Downtime when equipment failures (repairing takes up production time).
• machine operators can get subjected to Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)/ Occupational Overuse Syndrome.
• Employees can lose their jobs.
• Overtime pay is lost.

Question 7

Multi-skilling

Answer 7

Refers to knowledge & skills in more than one area.
* A multi-skilled worker is an individual who possesses or acquires a range of skills/knowledge and applies them to work tasks that may fall outside the traditional boundaries of his/her original training.

Question 8

What does multi-skilling allow in businesses?

Answer 8

• Allows full use of employee qualifications in the company.
• improve project performance.
• Shortage of employees won’t effect production process.
• Allows flexibility