Processing

The trend to mass-production while meeting the needs of individuals

• Mass production → Process of creating products in large quantities by automated/standardised mechanical process

• There are 4 major principles

  • Production is divided into specialised tasks
    • This means that each task is simple and highly repetitive
    • E.g. Making car divided into door, dashboard, shell, etc
  • Standardising parts (dimensional tolerances)
    • Allows parts to be readily fitted to others without adjustment
    • screws are universal so they can fit into all holes without adjustment
  • Specialised machines/materials/processes
    • These minimise human effort and maximises output
    • E.g. Using robotic arms to assemble parts that humans are not able to assemble due to limited space, weight/size of piece
  • Systematic Planning of total process
    • This allows best balance between human effort and machinery
    • E.g. Designing car on CAD, or using clay to build life size model, etc

• Pros vs Cons

  Pros	Cons
  Lower costs long term (machines are more expensive upfront compared to workers)	Inflexible (machines can only do what they are programmed to do)
  Uniformity and consistent quality (tolerance ranges, quality control)	Redesigning a product is expensive and may make old tools/machinery obsolete (out of date)

• redesigning a mass-produced product is extremely expensive as designs for new machine that produce the new product will render the existing machines obsolete. As such, mass-production is very inflexible as only very specific items are created to optimise efficiency; this means mass-production is only designed to cater for the general population meaning the needs of each individual is not fully met as each individual has varying needs.

• organisations are now using machines that can adapt to changes in design (greater flexibility means greater customisation which means the needs of the individual are better met while still retaining the ‘mass-production’ aspect)

  • car manufacturing plant still mass-produces cars by using specialised equipment however the car’s colour can be changed based on the user’s needs.

The different types of systems, including:

• Continuous
• Batch
• Discrete

The features of each type of system, the types of tasks they perform and the scheduling of these tasks

Continuous

• Capable of operating 24/7 without pause, so typically designed for 1 very specific task
  • No flexibility
  • Very rapid production
  • Continuous flow of inputs/outputs
  • Maintenance is done at regular, scheduled times
  • Equipment specialised for industry/product, so hard to alter
  • Requires unskilled human labour, requiring the lowest level of IT and involvement

a continuous production system is one with the capability to function for extended periods of time. the manufacturing equipment used is specially designed for the individual product meaning it is designed to be efficient and rapid in production. As such, continuous production systems are only capable of producing one product and are extremely expensive to change because the equipment used will often become obsolete due to their specific nature. continuous production requires unskilled labour as the machines do most of the work and humans are only present for error checking and maintenance. For example, the production of water bottles uses equipment specially designed for this process, meaning production is designed to be as efficient and rapid as possible. Only one product is being created and the system cannot change production to another item such as lunchboxes because the machines are inflexible

a batch production system is a system that produces specific quantities of an item (called batches) based on demand or other conditions. Batch manufacturing equipment is designed to manufacture different types of products using the same manufacturing equipment. This allows for greater flexibility compared to continuous production. For example, the production of canned fruit is batch production because its production depends on which fruits are in season; the system will manufacture one type of fruit in the Summer but then change manufacturing in Winter.

• Applications of continuous systems
  • Manufacturing → Used for production of high-volume, low-variety products (I.e. assembly lines for cars [although sometimes batch], bottling/packaging food/beverages)
  • Chemical Engineering → Used to produce chemicals. (I.e. production of polymers/plastics, continuous distillation columns for separating mixtures, etc)
  • Energy Production → Used in energy production for generation of electricity. (I.e. steam turbines for power generation, gas turbines for aircraft propulsion)
  • Transportation → Used to transport goods and people. (I.e. conveyor systems for material handling, escalators, moving walkways for people)