A manufacturing process is a series of steps that involves people and their expertise, machines, and their efficiencies to convert raw materials into a finished product.
According to Fladger Associates, the manufacturing industry has a vast number of processes to meet all types of needs. The world depends on manufacturers to create what we need, from consumer goods to durable goods.
Repetitive
Repetitive work is any work that can be performed repeatedly. It can be a boring task, or it can be a challenging one that requires a lot of skill and attention.
Performing repetitive work can cause boredom and stress, negatively impacting productivity. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid these effects. First, try to change up your routine when possible. This can help you get more done in less time. Second, use technology to automate as much of your work as possible.
Repeating tasks can also be an opportunity for learning new skills or techniques. For example, if you’re an architect, you can learn new tools and processes to design better projects.
This can help you produce more effective designs and reduce the time it takes to build each project. Similarly, you can learn new methods and tools to build better software if you’re a software engineer.
The process type you use for repetitive work will depend on your needs and the products you produce. It’s important to keep in mind that the process type you choose should match your company’s production goals and your customers’ needs.
Repetitive manufacturing is repeatedly producing the same or extremely similar products. It’s best used when manufacturers have a specific finish date they want to achieve or a production rate they want to hit. This is an efficient and cost-effective way to manufacture, and the setup is usually minimal and noninvasive to the production line.
Continuous
A continuous process is a production line where the work units or materials flow continuously from one stage to the next without any breaks in time, substance, sequence, or extension. This type of processing saves costs, energy, and time.
An oil refinery is a good example of a continuous manufacturing process, where the raw material is refined into kerosene, gasoline, and many other petroleum-based products. A series of mechanical processes can achieve this and is a perfect example of continuous work.
While this type of production is known for its efficiency and consistency, it also has some drawbacks. The main disadvantage is that stopping and starting a continuous process can be difficult because of unwanted chemical reactions, settling of suspended solids or crystallization, and hardening of materials in tanks, pipes, and vessels. Additionally, many continuous processes experience thermal cycling and pressure cycles when they are shut down or started up, which can wear equipment out quickly.
Another disadvantage of this type of processing is that it can be more expensive to set up. It also requires more complex equipment than batch production.
However, the benefits of continuous production outweigh these disadvantages. The most important advantage is that it produces a higher volume of products in less time than other types of production. This helps businesses keep up with their customers’ demand for goods and services. Moreover, it also allows them to maintain a high level of quality. The other key benefit is that it allows them to use advanced machinery to produce identical standardized goods. This saves companies money in the long run as it eliminates human error and ensures that the product is of a consistent standard.
Discrete
You are in the discrete manufacturing industry if your products involve assembling components, such as automobiles or furniture. Discrete manufacturing also uses many workstations and requires sequential routing to ensure that the assembly of units is completed in order.
Discrete manufacturers typically produce products in small batches that can be dismantled or reworked. This type of manufacturing makes it easy for companies to change parts or add new ones, so it’s ideal for companies that need to make repairs and upgrades.
However, this type of production can be very complex and require many steps to execute correctly. It’s important to note that this type of manufacturing also involves more human involvement than other types of production, so it’s crucial to have an efficient system in place for managing the processes involved.
Historically, discrete manufacturing has relied on operational technologies delivered as proprietary systems from a single vendor. These systems are often dated and costly to upgrade and maintain, so choosing a new system that can be tailored to your needs is important. Ideally, you’ll want to consider an industrial PC powered by Intel(r) technology for scalability and manageability that can run your various operations on a single device.
Job Shop
A job shop is a manufacturing company that produces bespoke products for a single customer. This differs from a batch shop, which makes many products for many customers at once.
Job shops produce products within a prefixed time and cost designed to meet customer specifications. The main advantage of this process type is that it allows a wide variety of product variants to be produced efficiently.
It is also a good choice for smaller companies seeking to make consistent, on-demand products while keeping costs low and maintaining quality standards. However, it has some drawbacks as well.
The first issue is that job shops have a tendency to generate high material flow and waste. This is because it requires a lot of movement of parts and materials between departments to complete a task.
Another major disadvantage is that job shops typically use general-purpose machines rather than specialized, product-specific equipment. This can lead to setup changes that are time-consuming and expensive.
To reduce these problems, managers need to review the layout of their job shop and see if there are any repeating patterns in the flow of work. This can help reduce setups and transportation, saving money in the long run.
Finally, management must ensure that the manpower levels in each plant operation area comply with the master schedule. This can be done using methods such as overtime.
While these methods might not be free, they can significantly simplify job shop production and minimize the possibility of running out of resources or completing tasks late. In many instances, they can even improve quality and eliminate delays that can cause a halt in production.
Batch
In computing, batch processing is an incredibly effective way to automate and process massive amounts of data without user interaction. It is also commonly referred to as workload automation (WLA) or job scheduling, and it can be used to perform tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming.
Early on in the history of computers, punch cards were used to tell computers what to do, and decks of cards would be processed at once. The system ran until the card was completed or an error occurred. Eventually, these processes would stop and require manual intervention.
Today, batch processing is commonly incorporated into systems to manage and monitor tasks that are triggered by an external event or condition. This can include a customer ordering online or an employee requesting supplies.
Once batch processing starts, it is typically run at regular intervals. It can run on a fixed schedule or be run based on the availability of computer resources.
The process type for batch work is the same as that of job shop and discreet manufacturing, except that it is demand-driven and not production-based. Companies use this type of manufacturing to fulfill single or periodic orders on a specific schedule, often at low volume.
Many industries, such as apparel, flat pack furniture, electrical goods, pharmaceuticals, and fast food, use batch process manufacturing to make a single product at a time. It is also commonly used with medical products, such as blood test kits, where it is crucial that the items are produced accurately and consistently.
