Modern and Industrial Scales Flashcards
(12 cards)
Bespoke/one-off production
made to specific measurements products by highly skilled workers who mainly worked by hand.
- Very time consuming and seen as a long-time investment.
○ Custom products
Wedding dresses/rings
Batch production
used when a greater number of products are required from one to a thousand units.
- Uses lots of jigs, moulds, formers and templates for high accuracy, consistency and efficiency. Cam/Cad will often be used as well.
- Suited to seasonal products with limited demand or a limited time frame.
○ Cloths + newspapers
Mass/line production
- used when a high number of a product needs to be produced quickly and consistently.
Uses:- A production/assembly line
- High levels of automation
High initial set-up costs
- suitable for cans or bottles, stock forms of steel or timber etc.
Continuous production
A uninterrupted flow in manufacturing/assembly line resulting in a consistent delivery of goods. Best suited for efficient ways to produce a large volume of products as once.
Requires:
- High set-up costs
- Low and high skilled labour
- Fully and semi-automated machinery
Often combined with the just-in-time method
Manufactures goals
Manufactures often seek to implement increasingly more efficient systems.
- Can be in response to market/demand pull or cost push
Often done to gain a competitive advantage such as reducing manufacturing time or to cut costs.
Kaizen/continuous improvement
A manufacturing method striving to reduce waste, improve productivity and achieve sustained continual improvement in target activities and processes of an organization.
- The building block of many other production methods
Seven areas that can reduce waste: overproduction, waiting, transportation, over processing, excessive inventory, unnecessary motion, defects.
Just-in-time/lean production
Focuses on producing exactly the amount you need at exactly the time your customers need it.
This allows to:
- free up inventory space
- reduces the amount of materials needed
- Reduces transportations costs
- Prevents materials from going off such as in food
- Improves efficiency
However just-in-time can be quite risky as if the supply is affected in any way or the demand is higher than expected than everything goes wrong.
UPS
Unit production systems - Uses overhead tracks to move component parts on hanging carriers. Most commonly used for garments.
UPS offers:
- Increased control of workflow
- Streamlines assembly and speeds up production
- Automatic movement of products and reduces labour costs
Stages of production are logged and improve the quality control.
QRM
Quick response manufacturing, Reduces lead times in response to demand.
* Production is triggered by consumer demand and not through traditional methods such as trend forecasting.
Time-based competition (TBC) is another strategy used to get ahead of competitors and is a main feature used in QRM.
Characteristics:
- Leads to reduced time from manufacturing to market
- Reduces external and internal times by improving communication and systems
- The ability to respond more efficiency to demand pull and fluctuations in the market.
- increasing flexibility in the manufacturing process using ‘flow’ production methods
Increases amount of added value
Vertical In house production
Increase productivity and profits integrating parts of the supply chain within the main company.
- Involves the acquisition of other companies responsible for the supply of raw materials, delivery and retail. Ensures a robust and reliable supply chain and is often used in just-in-time to prevent supply issues.
Pros:
○ Fixed prices for parts and services
○ Reliable source and supply of parts and services
○ Transparent and shared quality assurance procedures
Cons:
- Diversification of core business, potential lack of skills
- Greater administration and complex management structure
Very high capital outlay
Modular/cell production
A type of production that divides work into teams called cells or modules.
- Each cell or modular works to achieve quality, efficiency and to reduce waste
- Computer control links several cells/modules seamlessly
- Robotic arms are used to change parts and automated guided vehicles (AVGs) transport parts form one cell to the next.
- Often used in car manufacturing and electronics.
E.g: the mini factory where the robotic arms would move parts between each step of production and automatic guided vehicles transport parts around.
FMS
Flexible manufacturing systems - Can adapt to changes in product. Material and scale of production.
- FMS responds quickly to market changes and capitalises on the adaptability of CNC machinery.
Multi-functional tools and quick-release dies mean machines can switch from one product to another with little downtime -> increase efficiency.
