Scales Of Production Flashcards
What is one-off-production?
Bespoke products are made to meet specific customer requirements.
- Often labour intensive
- usually requires highly skilled workers
- Takes a lot of time and money but the result is usually a product of high quality
What is batch production?
A set of products are passed through the production process together, one stage at a time.
- useful when making small quantities of a product or variation of a similar product
- Machines can be programmed to carry out specific tasks and use templates (jigs and molds are used to make the products identical)
- Machinery usually has to be stopped and reconfigured for each batch
- Materials can be purchased in large qualities, enabling the business to benefit from economies of scale (lower unit costs when larger quantities are purchased)
What is mass production?
In mass (or flow) production the process is broken down into stages, with different tasks being performed as the products move along the assembly line.
- Used to produce large quantities of product
- productivity is high, so unit cost is low
- Machinery is costly so initial set up is expensive
