Scale of Production

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A-Levels Resistant Materials (Industrial and Commercial Practice) Flashcards on Scale of Production, created by Alec Stevens on 10/05/2013.
Alec Stevens
Flashcards by Alec Stevens, updated more than 1 year ago
Alec Stevens
Created by Alec Stevens over 11 years ago
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Question Answer
One-Off/Bespoke A 'Tailor-made' or customised solution. Often only a single product. Completely customised to clients specification. Often relatively expensive because of the premium on unique features, increased labour time from hand crafted production and exclusive materials. Very good quality. E.g. bespoke furniture.
Batch The manufacture of identical products. Numbers produced in each batch can range from tens to thousands. Number is predetermined and specified. Batch production offers flexibility in tooling, machinery and workforce to enable a fast turnaround. Production can thus be quickly switched to a different product, depending on demand. Batch production often makes use of FMS (flexible manufacturing systems). This allows companies to be competitive and efficient. Lower unit cost than one-off manufacture because of purchasing power of bulk-buy materials.
Mass High-volume. Makes use of a highly automated manufacturing process and largely unskilled (low labour cost) workforce. Designed to follow mass market trends but cannot quickly or flexibly adapt like batch production - tries to appeal to wide national and international market. Rigorous product planning and QC ensures high quality identical products. Production costs kept extremely low because of lower numbers of workers, lower pay of workers and scales of economy when purchasing materials. However, HIGH initial set up cost due to very expensive machinery and tooling needs. Increased production quickly covers set-up costs. Used for electronic products like mobile phone shells/game consoles/packaging.
Continuous Runs 24/7 Very little flexibility in production. Extremely low unit costs, and pros/cons as per mass production. Used for cans/bottles in the drinks industry.
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