operations - production processes

Question 1

What is production?

Answer 1

The process of taking raw materials and turning them into a finished product.

Question 2

What are the two methods of production?

Answer 2

Job and flow production.

Question 3

What is job production?

Answer 3

The production of one off items to meet the needs of each individual customer.

Question 4

Give 2 advantages of job production.

Answer 4

• Cheap and easy to set up
• Meet specific needs of customer
• High quality
• Can charge premium price
• Business can differentiate itself from competitors

Question 5

Give 2 disadvantages of job production.

Answer 5

• Requires highly skilled labour
• Difficult to achieve economies of scale
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Limited market and output

Question 6

Give an example of a product made using job production.

Answer 6

• Tailor made clothes
• Building ships and bridges
• Web design
• Specialist cakes

Question 7

What is flow production?

Answer 7

The process of making identical products along an assembly line.

Question 8

Give 2 advantages of flow production.

Answer 8

• Efficient
• Low cost per unit (economies of scale)
• Consistent quality
• Continual output so less need to hold stock
• Can utilise worker specialisation

Question 9

Give 2 disadvantages of flow production.

Answer 9

• High inital costs
• Problems can shut down whole process
• Repetitive work leading to low motivation
• Can only be used for standardised products

Question 10

Give an example of a product made using flow production.

Answer 10

• Mass produced food
• Televisions
• Mobile phones

Question 11

What is lean production?

Answer 11

A strategy businesses can use to mak production more efficient.

Question 12

How does using lean production contribute to business efficiency?

Answer 12

It aims to use as few resources as possible to minimise waste.

Question 13

What 2 techniques can be used to increase business efficiency as part of lean production?

Answer 13

JIT and Kaizen.

Question 14

What does JIT stand for?

Answer 14

Just in time.

Question 15

What is the aim of JIT?

Answer 15

To keep stock levels to the bare minimum.

Question 16

Give 2 advantages of JIT.

Answer 16

• Money saved from not holding stock can be used elsewhere
• Stock will not lose value
• Reduces warehousing costs

Question 17

Give 2 disadvantages of JIT.

Answer 17

• Dependent upon a good relationship with suppliers
• Firm can lose out on sales if stock doesn’t arrive
• Don’t get purchasing economies of scale
• Cannot meet unexpected rises in demand

Question 18

What is the aim of Kaizen?

Answer 18

For all workers to make small but frequent improvements to increase efficiency.

Question 19

Give an advantage of Kaizen.

Answer 19

• Big cost saving over time

* Easy to implement