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2.4.1 Production, Productivity and Efficiency - Coggle Diagram
2.4.1 Production, Productivity and Efficiency
Methods of Production
Job - individual products made one at a time to meet specific customer needs e.g. tailor made suits. labour intensive
Pros
- High profit margins
- Customers get exactly what they want
- Employees may gain enjoyment for using their specialist skills
Cons
- Highly skilled staff are required = high labour costs
- Highly skilled staff may not be available meaning expensive training is needed
Batch - making a set quantity of identical products (a batch) e.g. a bakery making a batch of 100 white bread rolls then a batch of 100 wholemeal bread rolls.
Pros
- Able to make a variety of sizes or flavours
- Can be partly automated
- Can produce more than job
Cons
- Not as flexible regarding customers tastes as job
- Not fully automated so higher costs than flow
Flow - where products flow around a factory in a continuous process on production lines e.g, car manufactoring, capital intensive
Pros
- Able to make far larger quantities
- Highly automated process
- Consistency in production meaning products are identical so customers know what they are buying
Cons
- In competitive markets for similar mass produced products, profit margins can be low
- Machinery needed for automation is expensive
Cell - where the production of items are organised into teams / cells, each teams is responsible for making different parts of the product
Pros
- Allows for job rotation and multi skilled workers
- Greater worker motivation
- Quality improvements as each team has 'ownership' for quality in its own area
- Teamwork between workers
Cons
- May not allow a firm to use its machinery as intensively as in flow
- Allocation of work to cells has to be efficient so they have enough work but not so much they can't cope
- A firm may have to invest in new materials handling and ordering systems suitable for cell prod.
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