UNIT 2

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Reading

1. Skim through text 8 and think of the suitable title. TEXT 8

The traditional types of production design are job, batch and flow production.

The term "job production" describes a situation in which a single product is completed by one person or a group of people. Servicing a car, the making of a piece of furniture to the specification of an individual customer, and the design of a computer system to meet the requirements of an individual customer can all be seen as examples of job production. The organization of job production will be a relatively simple matter when the product is simple and demand is relatively small. When demand increases or the product is technically complicated the demands on the organizational abilities of management increase. This can increase the costs of production to such a level that management will seek alternative methods. Whether or not they adopt them will depend upon the needs of the product, the willingness of the market to pay the necessary price to cover costs and the availability of sophisticated technology to help limit the increase in costs. Job production is the most common form of production in very small businesses.

2. Read the text more carefully. Try to guess the words underlined from the context.

3. Comprehension check.

Working in pairs, answer the questions.

1. What are the traditional types of production design?

2. What is "job production"?

3. For what type of business is it typical?

4. What can increase the costs of production?

Vocabulary

Using your dictionary, match words in A with their synonyms in B.

A

1. to tailor

2. to meet

3. flexibility

4. to face

5. to complain

6. fault

7. supervision

8. sufficient

B

1. adaptability

2. to moan

3. mistake

4. administration

5. to style; to make

6. enough

7. to stand before

8. to satisfy

Pre-reading task Work in small groups.

Now you are going to read about advantages of job production. Can you suppose what they are?

1.Read text 9. Were your ideas about the advantages of job production correct?

TEXT 9

ADVANTAGES OF JOB PRODUCITON

The product can be tailored to meet the needs of the customer. This is not impossible using other types of production but job production does give more flexibility in this matter.

When things go wrong it is easier to isolate the source of the problem, although it is not necessarily easy to analyze the problem! The owner of a garage, for example, faced with an irate customer complaining about the standard of servicing on a car, will know which of his mechanics was responsible for the servicing. It may be more difficult to find out why that particular job went wrong. The fault may lie in the skill of the mechanic, the degree of supervision, a fault in a piece of equipment or a failure on the part of the customer to provide sufficient information or permission.

The workforce has a greater involvement with the product. The sight of a completed job gives a person greater satisfaction than contributing to a small part of a project. Either working alone or as part of a small work group individuals prefer to see what they have achieved and to know that their contribution was an important part of the final product.

2. Comprehension check.

Here are some answers about the advantages of job production. Write the questions.

1. What ?

The goods can be produced to meet the requirements of the buyer.

2. In what case ?

In case things go wrong.

3. What ?

The sight of a completed job gives a person greater satisfaction.

Discussion Work in pairs.

Discuss what you have learned about the advantages of job production.

Reading

1. Skim through text 10 and think of the suitable title. TEXT 10

When job production is used to make a complex technical product tailored to the needs of customers the sales force will be relatively large and a high degree of technical expertise will be required. Smaller firms may overcome this problem by using the services of an agent. The cost of selling will then be spread over all the firms employing the agent as a principal. Effectively the agent is selling knowledge of the market and technical skills. The business employing the agent is reducing the overheads of maintaining a sales force.

The business is likely to need to own or lease a wider range of machinery. Machine A may be required to produce parts for jobs X, Y and Z. Depending on the importance of the time factor and the cost of re-setting Machine A, the business may need the use of more than one machine to meet the delivery dates for its orders. Delivery dates are set by the market. A firm is less competitive if it offers a delivery date six months after a firm order is placed than one who can offer a delivery date two months after the order is placed. The truth of that statement will, of course, depend upon the uniqueness of the product concerned. A business with a virtual monopoly in a market is in a far stronger position than one competing with a number of firms offering close substitutes for its product. Job production requires a flexible workforce. The technically simple product presents few problems. A more sophisticated product demands a highly skilled workforce able to do a wide range of specialized tasks. This can be expensive in labour costs. Add to this the need for highly competent supervisors and a flexible management team able to undertake technical supervision, costing and labour management and it becomes clear why more economic methods of production have been developed.

Job production is different from plant layout using the job shop approach. In the latter the workspace is organized in terms of functions. Machines to perform a given operation will be grouped in work centres and different products will take a different route through each work centre. A furniture business could have work centres for cutting, turning, staining, assembling and polishing, among others.

2. Read text 10 more carefully. Try to guess the words underlined from the context.

Then use your dictionary to check the words.

Discussion

Discuss what you have learned about the disadvantages of job production.

Self-assessment

1. Identify one instance in which job production is used as a positive marketing point.

2.A small company produces hi-tech goods for a world market. Why might it need an agent?

3.Distinguish between job production and job shop production.

4.A flexible workforce suggests a high skill level. State and explain two problems this might cause a business.

Reading

1. Read text 11 using your dictionary to help with new words. Think of suitable title of the text.

TEXT 11

A batch of goods is simply a group of products which undergo production at the same time. The simplest example is a batch of loaves. These are the loaves that are put into the oven, by the baker, at the same time.

Batch production can be defined as a method of organizing the work on any product so that it is divided into a number of operations and each operation is completed for a group of products (the batch) before it is moved on to the next operation. Under batch production all items in a particular batch move from one process to another simultaneously. This can lead to organizational problems. For example if the batch is too large and one operation takes longer than another then staff and machines can stand idle while they wait for the next batch to reach them. One solution to this problem is to have a 'buffer' stock of work in progress that can be drawn on. This ties up capital in stock and has an effect on working capital.

Advantages of batch production

1. Compared with job production it can lead to a saving in the amount of machinery used.

2. It enables a costing system to be employed which can allocate costs to each completed product.

3. The system generates a large quantity of stock between different production processes. Although this ties up capital it can also act as a buffer. The existence of such stocks can give management greater flexibility in organization.

Disadvantages of batch production

1. A large amount of capital is tied up in work in progress.

2. There is a long production time for making each part. Any one item in a batch will not be completed significantly before any other item.

3. There is a need for a very efficient system of control in planning and production. This can be time consuming for management.