Operations Management - Production Flashcards
Define Job production
A unique product that is often made by a skilled craftsman specific to a person’s requirement.
Examples: Wedding dress, tailor made suits, buildings, bridges and ships.
Evaluate job production
+ Unique product.
+ Likely to be of a high quality as it is likely to have been handmade and a lot of time and detail will have gone into making the item.
+ Businesses can charge higher prices for the item due to its uniqueness.
+ Specialised employees are likely to enjoy their job more as they are utilising their skills.
- It can be very expensive for the customer to purchase their specially made item.
- Time-consuming – it can take a long time to produce the item as it is being made to specific customer requirements.
- Higher wage bill – skilled employees will command higher payments for their time and expertise.
- Often only targeting a smaller market.
Define batch production
The manufacture of a limited number of identical products. Within each stage of the production process, work will be completed for the whole batch before the next stage is begun.
Examples: Clothes, paint and production of loaves of
bread.
Evaluate batch production
+ Reduction in unit cost as can benefit from economies of scale.
+ Products can be produced in very large or very small quantities depending on the level of demand.
+ Suitable when production is divided into a number of operations.
+ Allows for a variation in the product being produced, e.g. different sizes.
+ Quicker than job production as it combines elements of job and mass production.
+ Use specialist machinery – does not need skilled employees, which reduce the cost of production.
- If there is a faulty product in the batch, then the whole batch has to be written off.
- Time lost switching between batches, e.g. cleaning and reloaded the machines.
- Machinery does most of the jobs this can lead to the employees becoming bored and demotivated
with their jobs. - Initial cost of the machinery.
- Lost production time lost due to breakdown of machinery.
- Cross contamination of ingredients – e.g. nut allergy “produced in a factory that uses nuts” – may lose sales.
Define flow production
Production is organised so that different operations can be carried out one after the other, in a continuous sequence as production moves continuously from one stage of the process to the next.
Examples: Crème Eggs, golf balls and car manufacturing.
Evaluate flow production
+ Large quantities can be produced for simplified or standardized products.
+ Unit costs can be reduced as a result of economies of scale.
+ Use can be made of compute-controlled machinery and consistency of quality and uniformity can be attained.
+ Production can continue virtually non-stop for long periods of time.
+ Less labour is required – only machines supervisors are needed. Lower labour costs.
+ Faster production method than job or batch.
+ Reduction in wage bill – there is no need to employee specialist workers as machinery does most of the work.
- Set up costs can be very high. Investment must be justified by high volume of sales.
- Products will tend to be standardised, although modern machinery is becoming more flexible to overcome this drawback.
- Breakdowns can be very costly – interdependent nature of the process can mean that if one section breaks down the whole line may have to stop.
- Jobs for those working in such production environments tend to be repetitive and boring. Motivation issues may arise.
Factors to decide which type of production method
- the product being produced
- the cost of labour
- the cost of capital
- the availability of money for investment
- technology
- the skills of labour
- the size of the market
- customer requirements
