Manufacturing & Production (2024)

Advantages:

• The products made are high quality and unique
• Employs people with high skills
• Workforce is engaged because each job is different and they will take pride in their work

Disadvantages:

• High labor costs, takes a lot of effort and a lot of skill
• Production takes a lot of time and is expensive, special templates, moulds or jigs would have to be made
• No economies of scale

Advantages:

• Because more products are made using the same template the cost is reduced
• Gives the customer and client more choice (e.g. colour)
• Materials can be bought in bulk so the item is cheaper

Disadvantages:

• Workers are less engaged than with one off as work can be repetitive
• You need to somewhere to store the materials until they are used (for example storing yellow plastic granules until you finish making with all the other colours)

Advantages:

• The cost of making the moulds and templates are spread out over a large number of products
• Lower labour costs
• Materials can be bought in bulk, this reduces the products cost
• A large number of items are quickly produced

Disadvantages:

• Machinery is expensive to buy and production lines also cost a lot to set up
• Production lines are difficult to adapt and change
• If any part of the production line breaks then production will completely stop

Advantages:

• The cost of making the moulds and templates are spread out across an infinite amount of products
• Lower labour costs
• Materials can be bought in bulk, this reduces the products cost
• A large number of items are quickly produced

Disadvantages:

• Machinery is expensive to buy and production lines also cost a lot to set up
• Production lines are difficult to adapt and change
• If any part of the production line breaks then production will completely stop

Advantages:

• No costs from the storage of goods or materials
  
• The cost of making the moulds and templates are spread out over a large number of products
• Lower labour costs
• A large number of items are quickly produced

Disadvantages:

• If stock isn't delivered on time then production shuts down
• Materials cannot be bought in bulk, only the amount needed as the materials aren't stored
• Machinery is expensive to buy and production lines also cost a lot to set up
• The software to run Just in Time is expensive to set up and so is monitoring stock levels
• Production lines are difficult to adapt and change
• If any part of the production line breaks then production will completely stop

When a product is manufactured in large numbers by batch or continuous production it is almost impossible to ensure that each individually finished product is exactly the same. Each finished product may look the same but there will be very small differences.

For example, look at the soldiers on the left - they will likely be batch produced in 1000s.Each hand made soldier will differ very slightly in its size and shape due to the way it has been manufactured.

This is usually the case when manufactured products are made completely by hand or part manufactured by hand.

When each toy soldier is finished it is checked to ensure that each one is as near to the correct size as possible. Each toy soldier must fall between two critical measurements for height and length.

The height must fall within measurements ‘A’ and ‘B’ and the length within ‘C’ and ‘D’. This is called ‘tolerance’. Any toy soldier falling outside either of these sets of measurements is rejected and recycled.

Digital vernier calipers are one of the most accurate measuring devices. Due to their accuracy you can check whether products are within tolerence, for example say the tolerence is 75mm up to 76mm. If it is outside these measurements (tolerance) it will be rejected.

If the measurement was 75.5mm it would be within tolerence, so would be kept.

Look at Technology Student for the different uses of Digital Vernier Calipers - make sure you look at both pages.