Modern Industrial and Commercial Practice Flashcards
One-off, bespoke production
Refers to uniquely designed and manufactured products e.g. Luxury cruise ship, chair for disabled
Increased expense and more complex production are often encountered due to:
Individual client consultations fm design work
More skilled workers required
Setting up individual manufacturing processes
Fewer economies of scales e.g. No bulk discount on materials
Batch production
Manufacture of groups of products to increase efficiency and economy
Efficient and cost effective manufacture by simultaneous manufacturing processes
Jigs, fixtures and CNC machines facilitate more accurate and faster production of parts
Once the manufacturing set-up has been established, additional products can easily be made
Requires a flexible workforce and flexible equipment (FMS)
e.g. bicycles
Mass/line production
Uses ‘division of labour’ where specialist workers execute a single process in turn - highly organised manufacturing system
High initial tooling costs but this is offset by producing the product in such large quantities
Facilitates manufacturing products in large quantities
Henry Ford pioneered this approach
Cars, clothing, mobile phones, TV’s, vending cups
Unit production Systems (UPS)
Uses in textile product manufacture
Employs an efficient, organised and synchronised, computer-controlled, overhead transporter system
Incorporates appropriate hanging carriers to convey the garment components between workstations
Reduces handling operations, optimises labour and equipment use and improves quality
Scale of production
The use of particular manufacturing methods to suit the anticipated volume of sales
Quick response manufacturing (QRM)
Manufacturing strategy for reducing lead times (the time taken to respond to orders) - must be as short as possible
The principle ‘time is money’ is applied to each aspect of the business to bring the product to market as quickly as possible
Rapid completion of design and development process to minimise delays
Creativity, quality and customer needs are given high priority throughout the process
Useful for low-volume, customisable production
Vertical in-house production
Means that a company owns its own supply chain
Involves sourcing parts and sub-systems
Minimises the need for external suppliers
Factories must have the facilities to manufacture the required components
Advantages of vertical in-house production
Reduced risk of component price increasing
Less susceptible to suppliers going out of business
Protects a brand and improves the security of intellectual property rights (IPR)
Quality assurance strategies are easier to implement
Disadvantages of vertical in-house production
Specialisation reduced - potentially diluting expertise
Increase in administration
Reduction in flexibility
Design and economic use of materials
Use of dedicated software to plan how multiple parts for products can be economically nested in a piece of sheet materials to minimise wasted off cuts
Use redistribution methods rather than addition and wastage methods
Projects designed with use of standard sizes of materials to avoid wastage and additional machining
Rotation and blow moulding used - use the minimum possible amount of material
L beams and cellular beams - lightweight, economical and strong
Glass bottles - reduced amount of glass by 30% since the 1980s
Using computer systems in industrial manufacture
Planning and control software is used to organise complex manufacturing processes
Spreadsheet and charts are always available, giving an instant overview of factory schedules and operations
Barcodes and and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags facilitate the reliable transfer of component and stock information by scanning, which helps reduce waste and improve speed of response to changes in demand
The integrated circuit (IC) in RFID tags also improves retail security
Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) - Modular/cell production
Manufacturing cells combine CNC machines in a group
The cell is programmed to carry out a sequence of operations to make parts - e.g. Engine components
Automatic guided vehicles (AGV’s) transport materials/parts to and from buffer zones
Robots with six axes load and unload machines
These devices are programmed along with the CNC machines
Just in time (JIT) manufacture and implementation strategies
Organising the manufacture of products to order rather than stockpiling in hope of future sales
Implementation strategies:
Increased management and worker co-operation
Regular feedback meetings
Careful selection of suppliers, preferably close to the assembly plant - potential disadvantage as it means the manufacturer is dependent
Reduction of waste and stock
Optimised layout of machinery
Use of visual or electronic control systems
JIT history
1980s US Harley Davidson adopted JIT introduced by Toyota in Japan
Coined the term MAN - materials as needed
Enabled Harley Davidson to react flexibly to customer requirements - motorcycles only manufactured when an order was received
Higher quality and ‘right first time approach’
JIT system timeline
Customer selects options using configuration website
Order is digitally transferred to manufacturer’s planning and control software
Planning and control software organises parts and scheduling
Estimated delivery date communicated to customer
Manufacture of the product commences
RFID Kanbans ensure correct parts are assembled to suit selected options
Near completion the delivery is organised by computer system
Product is delivered to customer
Flexible manufacturing systems - single minute exchange dies (SMED)
Changing dies/moulds in a target time of under 10 minutes
Involves quick-release locking devices and multi-purpose interchangeable elements
Before this machines were idle for many hours during mould/die changes - increased downtime, increased cost
Used for pressed sheet metal car radiators and injection moulded parts
Standardised components
Parts made to a common, interchangeable standard such as bolts and light bulbs
Can be relied upon to fit correctly when adding or replacing elements of a design
Screw fasteners are one the most important examples of standardisation that is applied worldwide - metric international organisation for standardisation (ISO) screw thread system
Bought-in components and reasoning
Parts that are sourced from external suppliers
Reasons for using bought-in:
High numbers involved
Availability of sub-assemblies
Easy integration into CAD designs via available CAD files
Components can be bought in bulk
No need for manufacturing facilities
Sometimes a greater level of consistency
ISO 9001 framework is used to maintain quality standards
Computer controlled systems in production, distribution and storage
CIM - used to describe how computers are used to oversee the stages of bringing a product to market
Cad -> prototyping -> material/parts monitoring, costing and ordering (JIT, RFID tags and Kanbans) -> CAM -> QC checks -> automatic warehouse organisation
-> distribution through optimum loading patterns -> electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems record sales and automate re-stocking
Sub-assembly
A self-contained, separately manufactured element incorporated in a final product’s assembly
E.g. Gear cassette, braking systems, chains, derailleur gear-changing mechanism
Linear production
Efficient linear execution of sequential mass production operations
Continuous production
Processes where the product is constantly manufactured 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Applies to very few processes where stopping would cause a problem
e.g. steel industry where hot steel is continuously cast into ingots or the chemical industry where crude oil is continuously refined
Advantages of JIT
Reduction in costs - less waste, storage and excess materials
Unplanned manufacturing downtime is kept to a minimum
The customer is supplied with the order quickly resulting in a reputation for reliability
None of the finished goods will be obselete - they are in effect already sold
Disadvantages of JIT
If one link in the SCN fails then the order won’t be delivered in time - damaged reputation
Requires a highly skilled, flexible workforce and equipment setup which could be costly
May struggle to adapt to sudden increases in demand
Flexible manufacturing systems
The organisation of manufacturing to facilitate easily switching from one product to another as demand dictates
Two main features:
1 - modular/cell production
2 - SMED (single minute exchange dies)
Example products for one-off, batch and mass production
Tailored suit (made to measure), bespoke furniture
cast iron railings for a bridge refurbishment project
Ford fiesta
