BUSINESS

Business

Business

Question 1

Five areas drive lean manufacturing/production:

cost

quality

delivery

safety, and

morale

This approach sets out to cut out all activities that do not add value to the production process, such as holding of stock, repairing faulty product and unnecessary movement of people and product around the plant.

The most important aspects of Portakabin lean production for current A-level specifications are as follows:

Just in time production (JIT)

Cell production

Kaizen (Continuous improvement)

Quality Circles

Total Quality Management (TQM) and zero defect production - see notes on quality management

Time based management

Simultaneous engineering

Portakabin uses lean production. Lean production is a Japanese approach to management that focuses on cutting out waste, whilst ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all aspects of a business - from design, through production to distribution. Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to market needs. Lean is about doing more with less: less time, inventory, space, labor, and money. "Lean manufacturing", a shorthand for a commitment to eliminating waste, simplifying procedures and speeding up production. Lean Manufacturing (also known as the Toyota Production System) is, in its most basic form, the systematic elimination of waste - overproduction, waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, over-processing, defective units -  and the implementation of the concepts of continuous flow and customer pull. (Kalpakjian Schmid 2005 951-988)

Question 2

Flow Production

In Portakabin Flow production involves a continuous movement of items through the production process. This means that when one task is finished the next task must start immediately. Therefore, the time taken on each task must be the same. Flow production (often known as mass production) involves the use of production lines such as in a car manufacturer where doors, engines, bonnets and wheels are added to a chassis as it moves along the assembly line. It is appropriate when firms are looking to produce a high volume of similar items. Some of the big brand names that have consistently high demand are most suitable for this type of production: (Hax Candea 1984)

Heinz baked beans

Kellogg's corn flakes

Mars bars

Ford cars

Advantages

Flow production is capital intensive. This means it uses a high proportion of machinery in relation to workers, as is the case on an assembly line. The advantage of this is that a high number of products can roll off assembly lines at very low cost. This is because production can continue at night and over weekends and also firms can benefit from economies of scale, which should lower the cost per unit of production.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage is that with so much machinery it is very difficult to alter the production process. This makes production inflexible and means that all products have to be very similar or standardised and cannot be tailored to individual tastes. However some “variety” can be achieved by applying different finishes, decorations etc at the end of the production line.

Batch Production

In small bakeries and in numerous homes, as opposed to large food manufacturing companies, cookies are baked in ...