How does batch production work

Batch Production Learning Outcomes Describe batch production. Customizing Goods American Leather, a Dallas-based furniture manufacturer, uses mass customization to produce couches and chairs to customer specifications within 30 days. PRactice Question.

Did you have an idea for improving this content? Licenses and Attributions. This is the case with paper making. Starting up a paper machine takes a lot of time and produces a lot of waste. Once the machine is running, though, it can continue to produce quality paper without downtime or excessive waste.

As a result, paper machines nearly always run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If demand drops, they'll shut down the least efficient machine or a machine already scheduled for maintenance. Continuous production is perfect for a product for which there is a high demand, or for products that are very similar and are made in a similar manner.

Many plastic and resin products need to be produced in large quantities. This used to be done using batch production. However, newer technologies for injection molding have made continuous production possible. The result has been improved efficiency for producing plastic parts. Lean manufacturing methods for this problem recommend completing as much of the change-over work as possible before the down-time. Although the name implies that machine set-up can take place in just one minute, that usually is not realistic.

The goal is to minimize the change-over time as much as possible, and then continue to find ways to decrease it further. For example, with Toyota's Production System it would take from 12 hours to three days to change the metal stamping dies used for making car bodies.

This was reduced to just 90 minutes through the use of precision positioning equipment. That was a huge improvement. But they didn't stop there: further refinement reduced the change-over time to just ten minutes!

These metal stamping dies weigh several tons and require positioning within a tolerance of a millimeter; if the time for their change-over can be brought down from three days to just ten minutes, there are probably ways for you to reduce your change-over times, too.

Batch production will not be as efficient as continuous production, ie assembly-line work. But there are ways for your business to take less of a hit when small batch production is necessary. Is it really necessary to carry 16 types of cookies or 16 shades of shoe leather? Review which ones are moving the most product and focus on those, eliminating the less profitable varieties. If it's necessary to carry all options, consider extending the turnaround time for less popular choices so that you'll have more orders each time you process a batch.

If a product needs to be altered, this variation can be changed as the production process switches from one batch style to the other. What makes this form of producing products different from larger types of manufacturing such as mass production or continuous production?

This is a key benefit of the production process where a batch can be assessed to reduce the amount of wastage on a product. As these products are not continuously made, manufacturers can charge a premium price for their product but still make them in some cases at relatively cheap prices thanks to mass production of that batch.

This ensures the level of incorrect batches that might be pulled through to the next process are kept to a minimum. Industries have used this type of manufacturing to make their overall process more efficient. Dependant on your desired output rate, engineering experts are able to create automated assembly systems to help meet the needs of your production process.

Examples of products created within the batch production process include:. The following case studies highlight companies that have purchased solutions to aid batch production:.