Operations Methods: Job and Batch Production

Study Notes

Job Production: Focuses on unique, tailor-made items meeting individual customer needs.
Highly skilled workers create a single item or provide a service per customer.
Products are highly specialized and unique.
Production is often very labor-intensive.
Why use job production? Businesses might use it when customers have specific requirements that's impossible with other methods or if demand is low.
Advantages: High quality, high profit margins due to unique specifications, and high worker motivation.
Disadvantages: High costs, time-consuming and cash flow problems for large projects.

Batch production involves creating groups of identical items in batches.
Small changes can occur in each batch to meet diverse customer needs.
A good balance between job production (highly customized, one-at-a-time) and mass production (high volumes, highly standardized).
Large quantities are ideal to achieve high production and lower costs.
Examples: Bakeries (cupcakes/cookies), clothing companies (different sizes/colors of clothing).
Advantages: Flexibility and variety to customer needs, potential for economies of scale, lower average costs.
Disadvantages: Less flexibility compared to job production, higher storage costs, and possible lower worker motivation with repetitive tasks, and higher production costs compared to mass production.

Mass/flow production creates large quantities of standardized products on assembly lines.
Often capital-intensive, with less labor involved.
Workers perform a single repetitive task at an assembly line.
Advantages: High production rate, lower costs per item due to economies of scale,standardized quality with less defects. This approach optimizes output and provides stability in production volumes.
Disadvantages: Less flexibility in customization, potential for lower worker motivation, and set-up, running, replacement, and storage costs.

Mass customization combines the flexibility of job production with low costs of mass/flow production.
Products are produced in large quantities but tailored to meet unique customer specifications.
Example: Car manufacturers use the same production line for different car models but allow for numerous customization options (steering, dashboard, different colors, etc).
Advantages: Customer satisfaction, lower costs due to large volumes, greater variety of products.
Disadvantages: Higher costs than mass production, handling returns might be difficult, and potential time delays.