• Manufacturing takes place in a plant (= factory / facility).
• The ’Theory of Constraints’ (TOC) is an approach to maintaining flow in production. A ’constraint’ is a bottleneck in a system – something that limits further progress. TOC has identified four possible plant layouts, where the production lines inside the plant are arranged in the shape of different letters of the alphabet (I, A, V, T).
  • An I-plant is the simplest. Here, the work is done in a straight line. The constraint is simply the slowest operation.
  • Next is the A-plant. Many sub-assemblies converge for a final assembly. Here, the problem is synchronization, with converging lines arriving at the final point.
  • With a V-plant, one raw material is made into many final products. Here the problems occur immediately after the divergence point – any operation along one branch of the V can rob (= steal) material meant for the other branch.
  • Finally, we have a T-plant. A number of basic units are produced on a line and then customized at the end. There is a wide variety of final products. This type of plant combines the problems of most of the others.
• The process can be ’capital-intensive’ (= requiring a lot of finance) or ’labour-intensive’ (= requiring manpower). If the operation is efficient at transforming inputs (= materials, labour and information) into finished goods, then there is a high level of productivity.
• Key stages in the manufacturing process are:
  • Planning: This involves trying to bring together customer demand with operations issues of volume, timing, and the purchase of materials. A ’bill of materials’ is produced, this is compared with the existing inventory, and any necessary purchases are made.
  • Sequencing: A supervisor decides which workstation (= machine and/ or employee) will carry out which tasks in which order.
  • Scheduling: The supervisor decides when particular tasks should start and finish.
  • Dispatching: The supervisor authorizes tasks to begin (giving detailed instructions).
  • Loading: Materials or parts are introduced to an operation so that it can begin. (A robot loads an assembly line with a new component, an operator loads a machine with raw materials).
  • Monitoring: This involves checking progress, eliminating bottlenecks, and identifying and solving problems.
• Key issues are:
  • Control of capacity – there might be a need to ramp up (= increase) production.
    • forecasting demand fluctuations: seasonality, etc.
    • maximizing capacity utilization: making the best use of the capacity you have
    • monitoring equipment: set-up and change-over time / causes of breakdowns / speed losses / quality losses
    • adjusting capacity: overtime / using part-time staff; subcontracting parts of the operation; changing demand through price; developing products with a different seasonal demand
  • Control of inventory:
    • perpetual inventory system: software knows what was sold (and when and where); when inventory falls to a predefined ’re-order level’, there is a trigger to order more stock
    • advantages of storing materials: buy the best when it is available; respond quickly and flexibly to changes in demand; insure against unexpected problems; buy in bulk to reduce costs
    • disadvantages of storing materials: ties up working capital; has to be stored, insured and handled; can deteriorate or be damaged
• Types of production process:
  • Continuous process: work in progress without stopping
  • Mass process: high volume, low variety
  • Batch process: groups of products of the same type move through the process
  • Job production: low volume, opportunities for customization
  • Project (as in ’project management’): highly customized products, long timescale
• Capacity and output:
  • Output: is the number or type of things that a plant, company, industry or country produces.
  • Productivity: is a measure of how much is produced in relation to the number of employees.

High output per employee means high productivity.

• The maximum amount that a particular plant, company or industry can produce is its capacity. If it is producing this amount, it is working at full capacity. If it is producing more than what is needed, there is overproduction or: excess capacity, overcapacity, spare capacity, surplus capacity.
• If far too many things are produced, there is a glut of these things (a company churns out in large companies on their production lines, so we have a lot of customers). If not enough goods are being produced, there is a shortage.

 Exercise 1: Complete each production process with the appropriate example!

 Exercise 2: The word ’time’ appears in a lot of expressions used in production!

 Exercise 3: Interview with an Application Project Manager

 Exercise 4: Listen and read the television interview in which three production managers, Lee Kah Seng, Ferenc Kovacs and Mike Drewer, talk about issues of productivity and do the task that follows.

Download	Name		Play	Size	Duration
	Track 9			5.5 MB	6:03 min
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 Exercise 5: China as the New Manufacturing Hub of the World

 Video 1: Tucker: The Man and His Dream

1. Make a list of Tucker’s innovations!
2. The Tucker Corp. sold about $20,000,000 in stock to the public and produced only about 50 automobiles. The investors lost every penny they put into Tucker's company. Do you think that Tucker was to blame for losing the investors' money?
3. Was Tucker treated fairly by the government?