Production methods

There are three main production methods used in manufacturing: one-

off, batch and mass production.
One-off production:
Sometimes known as job or custom
production, this is where a single
item is required - for example a
suspension bridge or a custom-made
engine for a racing car. The unit cost
is high for this method, as the
production system needs to be
changed for each different unit.
Batch production:
This occurs where quantities of an item are sold regularly - for example
a local baker producing many batches of specialist loaves each day for
sale in local shops. Batch production will involve producing and storing
the components which will make up the end product, eg the batch
production of PCBs.
Mass production:
Products that sell in high volume,
nationally or internationally, are
manufactured on production or
assembly lines. The initial set-up
cost (or capital investment) of mass
production is high, due to the
specialist equipment used - but the

One off production
Bath production

Mass production
cost is spread across a very large number of products, so the unit cost is
low. When a mass-production line runs continuously round the clock, it is
called continuous flow.

Print me a Stradivarius The Economist Feb 2011
How a new manufacturing technology will change the world
Technology
THE industrial revolution of the late 18th century made possible the mass production of goods,
thereby creating economies of scale which changed the economyand societyin ways that
nobody could have imagined at the time. Now a new manufacturing technology has emerged
which does the opposite. Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items
as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as
profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.
It works like this. First you call up a blueprint on your computer screen and tinker with its
shape and colour where necessary. Then you press print. A machine nearby whirrs into life and
builds up the object gradually, either by depositing material from a nozzle, or by selectively
Feb 10th 2011 | from PRINT EDITION



solidifying a thin layer of plastic or metal dust using tiny drops of glue or a tightly focused
beam. Products are thus built up by progressively adding material, one layer at a time: hence
the technologys other name, additive manufacturing. Eventually the object in questiona
spare part for your car, a lampshade, a violinpops out. The beauty of the technology is that
it does not need to happen in a factory. Small items can be made by a machine like a desktop
printer, in the corner of an office, a shop or even a house; big itemsbicycle frames, panels
for cars, aircraft partsneed a larger machine, and a bit more space.
At the moment the process is possible only with certain materials (plastics, resins and metals)
and with a precision of around a tenth of a millimetre. As with computing in the late 1970s, it
is currently the preserve of hobbyists and workers in a few academic and industrial niches. But
like computing before it, 3D printing is spreading fast as the technology improves and costs
fall. A basic 3D printer, also known as a fabricator or fabber, now costs less than a laser
printer did in 1985.
Just press print
The additive approach to manufacturing has several big advantages over the conventional one.
It cuts costs by getting rid of production lines. It reduces waste enormously, requiring as little
as one-tenth of the amount of material. It allows the creation of parts in shapes that
conventional techniques cannot achieve, resulting in new, much more efficient designs in
aircraft wings or heat exchangers, for example. It enables the production of a single item
quickly and cheaplyand then another one after the design has been refined.
For many years 3D printers were used in this way for prototyping, mainly in the aerospace,
medical and automotive industries. Once a design was finalised, a production line would be set
up and parts would be manufactured and assembled using conventional methods. But 3D
printing has now improved to the point that it is starting to be used to produce the finished
items themselves (see article). It is already competitive with plastic injection-moulding for
runs of around 1,000 items, and this figure will rise as the technology matures. And because
each item is created individually, rather than from a single mould, each can be made slightly
differently at almost no extra cost. Mass production could, in short, give way to mass
customisation for all kinds of products, from shoes to spectacles to kitchenware.
By reducing the barriers to entry for manufacturing, 3D printing should also promote
innovation. If you can design a shape on a computer, you can turn it into an object. You can
print a dozen, see if there is a market for them, and print 50 more if there is, modifying the
design using feedback from early users. This will be a boon to inventors and start-ups, because
trying out new products will become less risky and expensive. And just as open-source
programmers collaborate by sharing software code, engineers are already starting to
collaborate on open-source designs for objects and hardware.


The jobless technology
A technological change so profound will reset the economics of manufacturing. Some believe it
will decentralise the business completely, reversing the urbanisation that accompanies
industrialisation. There will be no need for factories, goes the logic, when every village has a
fabricator that can produce items when needed. Up to a point, perhaps. But the economic and
social benefits of cities (see article) go far beyond their ability to attract workers to man
assembly lines.
Others maintain that, by reducing the need for factory workers, 3D printing will undermine the
advantage of low-cost, low-wage countries and thus repatriate manufacturing capacity to the
rich world. It might; but Asian manufacturers are just as well placed as anyone else to adopt
the technology. And even if 3D printing does bring manufacturing back to developed countries,
it may not create many jobs, since it is less labour-intensive than standard manufacturing.
The technology will have
implications not just for the
distribution of capital and jobs, but
also for intellectual-property (IP)
rules. When objects can be
described in a digital file, they
become much easier to copy and
distributeand, of course, to
pirate. Just ask the music
industry. When the blueprints for a
new toy, or a designer shoe,
escape onto the internet, the
chances that the owner of the IP will lose out are greater.
There are sure to be calls for restrictions on the use of 3D printers, and lawsuits about how
existing IP laws should be applied. As with open-source software, new non-commercial models
will emerge. It is unclear whether 3D printing requires existing rules to be tightened (which
could hamper innovation) or loosened (which could encourage piracy). The lawyers are, no
doubt, rubbing their hands.
Our TQ article explains the technology behind the 3-D printing process
Just as nobody could have predicted the impact of the steam engine in 1750or the printing
press in 1450, or the transistor in 1950it is impossible to foresee the long-term impact of 3D
printing. But the technology is coming, and it is likely to disrupt every field it touches.
Companies, regulators and entrepreneurs should start thinking about it now. One thing, at
least, seems clear: although 3D printing will create winners and losers in the short term, in the
long run it will expand the realm of industryand imagination.
Adam Smith's Pin Factory -Wealth of Nations 1776
To take an example, therefore,*19 from a very trifling manufacture; but one in which the
division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker; a workman
not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade),*20
nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the
same division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost
industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which
this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided
into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man
draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the
top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it
on, is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them
into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into
about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct
hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them.*21 I
have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were employed, and where
some of them consequently performed two or three distinct operations. But though they were
very poor, and therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery, they
could, when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a
day. There are in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten
persons, therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day.
Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be considered
as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought separately
and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar business,
they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; that is,
certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth
part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division
and combination of their different operations.



OTHER TYPES OF SPECIALISATION
REGIONAL
Certain areas have specialised in certain industrial production e.g. coal mining in
Yorkshire, pottery in Stoke
INTERNATIONAL
Certain countries have advantages in producing certain goods. They may have
natural resources or they may be able to produce goods more cheaply.
e.g. Sri Lanka Tea, Japan electronics. They then trade these goods for those
produced in other countries.

An example Specialization in a Zambian Copper Mine (from BizEd)
Specialisation and the Production of Copper
Next issue - Unemployment and Underemployment >>
The production of copper is a good example for seeing the various types of
specialisation that occur in an economy.
Specialisation by process
It was the Scottish Philosopher, Adam Smith, in his Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of Wealth of Nations published in 1776, who observed that when a
production process is broken down into constituent parts, with workers
concentrating on each task, the productivity of labour increased. He referred to
this as the division of labour principle.
In producing the refined copper cake (slabs) a number of different processes
can be observed
Mining and crushing of the ore
Grinding the ore to form a powder
Concentrating the ore powder to form an enriched slurry
Smelting the ore by melting and purifying copper to 99% pure
Electrolytic refining
Specialisation by occupation
Throughout the process labour with specialised tasks work in the production of
copper. Miners, for example, spend many hours both in open cast mines and
deep mines to drill the ore and transport it to the surface for the next stage
Specialisation by firm
A number of firms ranging from state-owned parastatals such as KCCM to
foreign multinationals undertake mining operations in Zambia. Whilst some of
these are conglomerates and are involved in a number of areas of business
many have specialised and their core activity is connected with the extraction
of metal and minerals.
Specialisation by region
Natural resources such as copper are not usually located evenly through a
country. Usually the resources can be found in certain areas associated with
specific geology, climates and soils. The area in the north of Zambia where the
copper is mined is known as the Copper belt. As a result of the copper mines
concentrating in the area ancillary firms and secondary industry grew up.
These provide services to the mining firms. Economists refer to these benefits
to firms resulting from the growth of the industry as external economies of
scale or economies of agglomeration.
Specialisation by nation
There are probably few countries in the world that shows such a level of
national specialisation. The economy of Zambia is reliant for 75% of its foreign
exchange earning on copper, although in the early 1990s this rose to over
90%. Such overdependence on one product can create major problems.

ACTION
A Describe how there is a division of labour in: (a) A school (b) McDonalds
B Why may a worker on a till in a supermarket suffer with boredom? What will then be the
problems for the business?