Unit 3 More about Materials

Question 1

What is one-off production?

Answer 1

• Makes bespoke products -> Every product will be different
• E.g. Wedding dresses can be custom-made to perfectly fit the bride, and made-to-measure furniture is often produced to fit the dimensions of the room
• Workforce needs to be highly skilled, so it is an expensive way to make things
• May take a lot of time to make each product
• Prototypes are normally produced as a one-off. If it works well, the product might be manufactured in greater volume

Question 2

What is batch production?

Answer 2

• Specific quantity of a product is made -> can be repeated as many times as necessary
• One process at a time on the whole batch so it’s quicker than making one-off products over and over again
• Used to manufacture a load of one product (e.g sofas), then a load of something a bit different (e.g. armchairs)
• PCBs are often batch-produced as different electronic products require different PCB designs
• Use templates, jigs and moulds -> identical. Less detail can help achieve consistency too
• Machinery and workforce needs to be flexible -> quickly change to making a batch of a different product
• Time between batches, when machines and tools have to be set up differently or changed -> downtime -> waste money because not making anything that can be sold

Question 3

What is mass production?

Answer 3

• Make thousands of identical products -> only use this for a mass-market product -> where there is high demand
• Different stages of production broken down into simple repetitive tasks -> each worker only does a small part of the process -> basic product design to make the assembly line simpler
• Often uses expensive specialised equipment like CAD/CAM
• Recruitment is relatively easy -> don’t need to be highly skilled -> robots are increasingly used on assembly lines too

Question 4

What is continuous production?

Answer 4

• Differs from mass production in that it runs all the time -> too expensive to keep stopping and restarting the process
• Pretty much entirely automated -> very few workers are needed
• Equipment built to make huge amounts of only one thing -> expensive but can be very efficient -> cost per item is cheap
• Make products such as paper and oil