Mass and Batch Production

Job Shop Production usually refers to manufacturers that produce items that are "one of a kind", for example, manufactures of automation systems and tooling. Manufacturers who produce a wide variety of items in very low volumes also fall into the job shop category. For example, very large mining trucks are produced in volumes typically less than 400 annually. Each truck has thousands of components so you can imagine that there are significant challenges in production scheduling, purchasing and inventory control with this type of manufacturing company as with all job shops.

Mass production refers to the manufacture of high volumes of a limited range of products. For example, aerosol containers and beer cans fall into this category. In modern mass production plants, a high degree of automation and computerized information technology is used to reduce costs in order to remain competitive. Quality control utilizing statistical methods is very important since a lot of scrap can be generated in a hurry if production processes go out of whack.

Batch production refers to a production control method whereby the range of products manufactured in a plant is made in batches. In the past, large batches of each product were made to gain efficiencies by reducing the amount of non value adding time spent changing over from one product type to another. However, this type of production results in high inventories and excessive lead times. The Toyota Production System was developed to overcome the limitations imposed by changeovers and allows manufacturers to produce in synch with customer demands at a high level of quality and low cost. Its success is obvious as Toyota is likely the best automotive manufacturer in the world today.
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Production Planning is a managerial function which is mainly concerned with the following important issues:
• What production facilities are required?
• How these production facilities should be laid out in the space available for