✅ 3. Business Operations Flashcards
What are the 2 methods of production?
- Job Production
- Flow Production
What is job production?
A method of creating an individual unique product to meet a customer’s specification
Advantages of Job Production
- Businesses can charge higher prices for the products
- (As) Products are likely to be high quality
- Employees are likely to be more motivated as there is a variety of work and highly skilled workers tent to get paid better
Disadvantages of Job Production
- Expensive to produce as each product is different
- Time-consuming
- Requires highly skilled labour/employees
Give one example that job production may include
Made-to-measure clothes
What is flow production?
Using a production line to continuously produce identical products and in large numbers
Advantages of Flow Production
- Able to produce large volumes of products
- Employees can specialise in a smaller and simpler number of tasks
- Producing in large quantities means they can benefit from economies of scale, which reduces cost per unit
Disadvantages of Flow Production
- High costs to purchase and setup machinery
- Employees may be demotivated or bored due to repetitive / limited range of tasks and lower salary
- Risk of machine failure
Give one example that flow production may include
Chocolate bars
Name one way a business can become more efficient?
One way a business can become more efficient is through lean production
What is lean production?
Lean production is a strategy businesses can use to make production more efficient
It does this by aiming to use reduce waste during the production process
What type of waste does lean production aim to reduce?
The waste can be anything that does not add value to the production process such as:
- Stock that hasn’t been sold
- Reducing time employees waste not working due to delays in production
- Stock that has been damaged
- Holding too much stock that costs money to be stored
Name the two forms of lean production techniques
- Kaizen
- JIT
Describe what Kaizen is
- Kaizen is a japanese term that means ‘continuous improvement’
- It is a form of lean production that encourages employees to suggest ways that the the production process can be improved
What is JIT?
Just in time (JIT) is a method for managing stock and a method for lean production that aims to keep stock levels very low at all times
What are the two methods a business can use to manage its stock?
- JIT
- JIC
Advantages of JIT
- Reduced costs - as there is less warehouse space to pay for, less warehouse workers etc.
- Fresher products as there are frequent deliveries - good for food
- Less likely to go out of fashion
- Less unsold stock - which reduces waste and saves money
Give 4 disadvantages of JIT
- Hard for businesses to react to unexpected changes in demand - so they cannot maximise their profit or satisfy customer demand
- Needs lots of coordination between the firm and its supplier, which requires time and transport & logistical costs
- Risk of stock not arriving on time
- Cannot benefit from purchasing economies of scale as you cannot use bulk-buy discounts if you buy in small quantities
(Coordination requires time)
What is JIC (Just-in-Case) ?
JIC is a method of stock control that involves purchasing or producing buffer stock (stock in excess) just in case there is a supply shortage or spike in demand