Manufacturing Processes
Operations Management
Manufacturing Processes
Production / Manufacturing processes are used to make everything that we buy ranging from the apartment building in which we live to the ink pens with which we write.
Manufacturing Processes
The high level view of what is required to make something can be divided into three simple steps.
Manufacturing Processes
Depending on the strategy of the firm, the capabilities of manufacturing, and the needs of customer, these activities are organized to minimize cost while meting the competitive priorities necessary to attract customer orders.
Concept | Description |
Lead time | The time needed to respond to a customer order. |
Customer order decoupling point | Where inventory is positioned in the supply Chain. |
Make to stock | A production environment where the customers is served “on-demand” from finished goods inventory. |
Manufacturing Processes
Long Customer Lead Time Short
Source
Low Inventory Investment High
Make
Deliver
Make-to-Stock
Assemble to Order
Make to Order
Engineer to Order
The inverted triangles represent customer order decoupling points.
Manufacturing Processes
Concept | Description |
Make to stock | Firms that serve customers from finished goods inventory. |
Assembly to order | Those that combine a number of preassembled modules to meet a customer’s specifications |
Make to Order | Those that make the customer’s product from raw materials, parts, and components. |
Engineer to Order | This companies will work with the customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components. |
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of production processes to use to produce a product or provide a service.
Layout | Description |
Project | The product remains in a fixed location. Manufacturing equipment is moved to the product rather than vice versa. |
Work center | Is where similar equipment or functions are grouped together, such as all drilling machines in one area and all stamping machines in another. |
Manufacturing cell | Is a dedicated area where products that are similar in processing requirements are produced. |
Assembly line | Is where work processes are arranged according to the progressive steps by which the product is made. |
Continuous process | Is similar to an assembly line in that production follows a predetermined sequence of steps, but the flow is continuous rather than discrete. |
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Manufacturing Cell
Workcenter
Project
Assembly line
Continuous process
Inefficient processes
Mass Customization
Low
One of a kind
High
Standardized
commodity product
Product
Standardization
Product Volume
Low
High
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Break-Even Analysis
The choice of which specific equipment to use in process often can be based on an analysis of cost trade-off.
A standard approach to choosing among alternative processes or equipment is break-even analysis. A break-even chart visually presents alternative profits and losses due to the number of unit produced or sold.
The choice depends on anticipated demand. The method is most suitable when processes and equipment entail a large initial investment and fixed cost, and when variable costs are reasonably proportional to the number of units produced.
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Manufacturing Process Flow Design
Is a method to evaluate the specific processes that raw materials, parts, and subassemblies follow as they move through the plant.
Concept | Description |
Assembly drawing | Is simply an exploded view of the product showing it components parts. |
Assembly chart | Uses the information presented in the assembly drawing and defines how parts go together, their order of assembly, and often the overall material flow pattern. |
Operation and route sheet | Specifies operations and process routing for a particular part. |
Process Flowchart | Denotes what happens to the product as it progresses through the productive facility. |
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Assembly Drawing
Assembly Chart
How Production / Manufacturing Processes are Organized
Operation and route sheet
Process Flowchart