“The means through which

our needs are met.”

 CLASSIFICATION OF
MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
 PROJECT PRODUCTION
• Project production
– activities are performed in a particular order
– within the given period
– within the estimated expenditure.
– Operations carried out in “fixed position assembly
type of layout"
– Examples -Production of ships, locomotive and
aircraft, construction of roads, buildings, etc.
 Characteristics of Project Production
– Definite beginning and definite end
– Fixed position layout
– High cost overruns
– Personnel problems
• When there is a fast build up, staff is either borrowed or hired for short
duration.
• personnel involved in the project have limited (or short lived) interest in
the project.
• Since each project has a limited duration,
– the staff starts spending more time forgetting prepared for the next
project.
• Site for the project may be in the underdeveloped region and
it may change from project to project which causes
 Importance of Project Production

• Non -uniform requirement of resources

• Involvement of different agencies
• Scheduling and control
– PERT and CPM techniques are used
 JOB PRODUCTION

• Jobbing production
– manufacture of one or few numbers of a single
product
– designed and manufactured strictly to customer’s
specifications,
– within, the given period
– within the price fixed prior to tile contract.
 JOB PRODUCTION
• Examples
– General repair shops;
– Special purpose machine tool manufacturers
– Workshops to manufacture jigs and fixtures
– Building contractors
– Tailoring shops manufacturing made-to-measure
suite of clothes; manufacturers of ships
– Cranes, furnaces, turbo-generators, pressure
vessels;
 Characteristics of Job production
• Disproportionate manufacturing cycle time
• Large work-in-progress
• Limited functions of production planning and control
• Materials are indented and purchased on receipt of orders
• Process planning activity is almost absent.
– Drawings and specifications are directly given to the
supervisor
– Supervisor to decide work methods,
• Select process, fix up machine tools to be used
• estimate time required completing an operation.
 Importance of Job production
• Small production runs
• Discontinuous flow of materials
• General purpose machines and process layout
• Highly skilled labor
– Qualified trade apprentices
– Instructions regarding “what to make” are issued in the form of
specifications
– Instructions as to “how to manufacture” are usually oral.
– The workmen being highly skilled are expected to work
independently
– And display a great deal of initiative and judgment.
– They are required to set up their own machines
– Prepare their own special tools
 Importance of Job production
• Highly competent knowledgeable supervision
– Engineers are engaged as foreman in the base workshop
– A group of site engineers
– With thorough training
– Capable of taking independent charge of each contract are
employed to work at site.
• The supervisor are
– Able administrator
– Expected to improvise and determine best work methods
– Determine tool requirements
– Select the best process
– Provide management with reliable estimates of labor and
materials for specific orders..
 Importance of Job production
• Simple Mechanism
– Standard tools are stocked
– while special tools are either made on the shop floor by the
operators or
– purchased on request from supervisor.
• Decentralized Process
– A schedule is prepared to show the start and completion date
of component of the product.
– Job tickets giving completion date of each component are
raised and given to the shop.
– The activity of day to day scheduling is left to the individual
shop supervisor.
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
• ADVANTAGES
– Each item can be altered for the specific customer
– A business is likely to be able to ‘add value’
– And possibly create a unique selling point (USP),
– Enable to sell at high prices.
• DISADVANTAGES
– Is an expensive process as it is labor intensive
– Payment of wages and salaries is more expensive
than the costs of running machines.
 BATCH PRODUCTION
• Manufacture of
– A limited number of product in limited quantities.
– Produced at regular intervals
– Stocked in warehouses as finished goods awaiting sales
Examples
• Process industries
– pharmaceuticals, paints, chemicals
• Medium and heavy engineering industry
– Electric motors, switch gears
– Heavy motor vehicles, Engines, machine tools.
•
 BATCH PRODUCTION
• Disadvantages associated with batch production.
• The production equipment
– Must be stopped, re-configured,
– Its output tested before the next batch can be produced.
• Advantages of batch production
• It can reduce initial capital outlay because
– A single production line can be used to produce several
products.
• Batch production can be useful for small businesses
who cannot afford to run continuous production lines.
 Characteristics of batch production
• Supervisor to possess knowledge of a specific
process
• General purpose machines and process type of
layout
• Manual materials handling
• Manufacturing cycle time affected due to queues.
• Large work-in-progress.
 Characteristics of batch production
• Need to have production planning and control
– More complex than those in jobbing production or mass
and flow production.
• Materials control and tools control functions are
important.
• Scientific stock-control system needs to be used to
ensure routine replenishment.
• Detailed operational layouts and route sheets are
prepared for each part of the product.
 Characteristics of batch production
• Scheduling needs to be more detailed and more
sophisticated
• As every machine requires to be individually scheduled.
• Progressing function is required
– To collect information on progress of work.
– A separate progress card needs to be maintained to record
progress of each component.
• Expediting is generally necessary
– Since quite often jobs, due to imbalances in work content,
tend to lag behind.
 Importance of Batch production
• Short runs
• Skilled labor in specific trades
• Limited span of control
– Supervision required in batch production is lower than that of
jobbing production
– Supervision is dependent of the batch size.
– The ratio of direct workmen to supervisors is more or less a
function of batch size.
• Flexibility of production schedules
– Disruptions due to machine breakdowns or absenteeism
– Do not seriously affect production as another machine can be
used or another operator from another machine can be shifted.
CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION
SYSTEM

MASS PRODUCTION &

PROCESS PRODUCTION
 MASS PRODUCTION
• Standardization is the fundamental characteristic of this
system.
• Here items are produced in large quantities
• Emphasis is not given to consumers orders.
• The production is to stock and not to order.
• Standardization is there W.R.T. Materials and machines.
• Uniform and uninterrupted flow of material is maintained
• Sequence of operations required to produce the product.
• The system can produce only one type of product at one
time.
• Cost per unit low.
 Characteristics of mass & flow production
• Special purpose machines and product type
layout.
• Lesser flexibility in production schedules
– Interruptions due to breakdowns and absenteeism
seriously affect production
– As stoppage of one machine usually disturbs the
working of other machines.
– Systematic maintenance and “provisioning of stand-by
operators” is required.
 Importance of Mass production
• Continuous flow of material
• Mechanized materials handling
• Low skilled labor
• Short manufacturing cycle time :
• Easy supervision
• Limited work- in- progress
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
• ADVANTAGES :
– Number of products can roll off assembly lines at very
low cost.
– Production can continue at night and over weekends.
– Economies of scale
• DISADVANTAGES :
– Flow production is capital intensive.
– It is very difficult to alter the production process. This makes
production inflexible
– All products have to be very similar or standardized
– Cannot be tailored to individual tastes.
 PROCESS PRODUCTION
• It is characterized by manufacture of a single
product produced and stocked in the
warehouses awaiting sales.
• The flexibility of such plants is almost zero as
only one type of product can be produced in
such plants.
• Typical examples of such plants are sugar,
steel, cement, paper, coke, refineries, etc.
Characteristics of process production
• (A) Special purpose machines with built-in
controls
• (B) Highly mechanized materials handling :
Conveyor system and automatic transfer
machines move materials from one stage to
another.
 Continuous Production
• Production facilities are arranged as per the
sequence of production operations.
• The items are made to flow through the sequence
of operations through material handling devices
such as conveyors, transfer devices, etc.
 Continuous Production
• Continuous Production is characterized by
• 1. Dedicated plant and equipment with zero
flexibility.
• 2. Material handling is fully automated.
• 3. Process follows a predetermined sequence of
operations.
• 4. Component materials cannot be readily
identified with final product.
• 5. Planning and scheduling is a routine action
 Continuous Production
• Advantages :
• Standardization of product and process sequence.
• Higher rate of production with reduced cycle time.
• Higher capacity utilization due to line balancing.
• Manpower is not required for material handling as
it is completely automatic.
• Person with limited skills can be used on the
production line.
• Unit cost is lower due to high volume of
production.
 Continuous Production
• Limitations
1. Flexibility to accommodate and process
number of products does not exist.
2. Very high investment for setting flow lines.
3. Product differentiation is limited.
 FACTORS INFLUENCING CHOICE OF
MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
• There is no best manufacturing system for
any product.
• The manufacturing system
– must be able to meet the specifications
of the final product
– must be cost effective
 FACTORS INFLUENCING CHOICE OF
MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
• Following factors determine the choice of the
manufacturing process.
– Effect of volume/variety
– Capacity of the plant
– Flexibility
– Lead time
– Efficiency
– Environment
 Effect of volume/variety
• High product variety require
– highly skilled labour,
– general purpose machines,
– detailed production planning and control system.
• low product variety requires (i.e. one or few
products produced in large volumes)
– low skilled labor,
– highly automated mass production processes using
special purpose machines
– simple production planning and control systems.
 Capacity of the plant
• Sales volume decides
– intermittent manufacturing process
– Continuous Manufacturing process.
• For Intermittent mfg process
– Fixed cost is low
– Variable cost is high
• For continuous process
– Fixed cost is high
– Variable cost is low
 Flexibility
• Flexibility
– the ability of the company to satisfy varied customers
requirements ,i.e variety of items.
• Flexibility and product variety are inter-related.
• Intermittent manufacturing is associated
– with higher inventories,
– large manufacturing lead times
– and elaborate planning and control.
 Lead time
• Lead times - delivery lead times expected by
the customers .
• The product, may require to be produced to
stock using principles of batch
production/mass product
 Efficiency
• Efficiency measures the speed and the cost of
the transformation process.
• Efficiency is
– the greatest when the product is mass produced.
• For mass production
– Higher sales volumes are required.
 Environment
• Environment
– brings in new technologies
– forces the adoption of new process of manufacturing.
For example,
– wooden furniture is gradually being replaced by
metals and plastic.
– A furniture manufacturing unit will have to change its
technology (i.e. change from one off production to
batch production) to fall in line with changing times.
 The product–process matrix
• Making comparisons between different processes along a spectrum which
goes, for example , from shipbuilding at one extreme to electricity
generation at the other has limited value.
• The real point is that because the different process types overlap,
organizations often have a choice of what type of process to employ.
• This choice will have consequences to the operation, especially in terms
of its cost and flexibility.
• The classic representation of how cost and flexibility vary with process
choice is the product–process matrix that comes from Professors
Hayes and Wheelwright of Harvard University.
• They represent process choices on a matrix with the volume–variety as
one dimension and process types as the other.
• Figure 4.12 shows their matrix adapted to fit with the terminology used
here.
• Most operations stick to the ‘natural’ diagonal of the matrix and few, if any, are
found in the extreme corners of the matrix.
• However, because there is some overlap between the various process types,
operations might be positioned slightly off the diagonal.
• The diagonal of the matrix shown in Figure 4.12 represents a ‘natural’ lowest-cost
position for an operation. Operations which are on the right of the ‘natural’
diagonal have processes which would normally be associated with lower volumes
and higher variety.
• This means that their processes are likely to be more flexible than seems to be
warranted by their actual volume–variety position.
• Put another way, they are not taking advantage of their ability to standardize their
processes. Because of this, their costs are likely to be higher than they would be
with a process that was closer to the diagonal.
• Conversely, operations that are on the left of the diagonal have adopted processes
which would normally be used in a higher volume and lower-variety situation.
• Their processes will therefore be ‘overstandardized’ and probably too inflexible
for their volume–variety position.
• This lack of flexibility can also lead to high costs because the process will not be
able to change from one activity to another as efficiently as a more flexible
process.