Operational Management
The process selection
11th. Nov. 2012
The Process Selection
There are many products design companies are usually used, one company may used one way of production which different than another company , so there is maybe thousands of process designs , but experts sort all the process to two main categories depend on two variables ( product standardization , and product volume).
First category is intermittent operations which is the process that used to produce a variety of products with different processing requirements in lower volumes. And the second category is Repetitive operations which is the process that used to produce one or a few standardized products in high volume.
Grouping process into two main categories of operations is useful to understanding of their general characteristic. But if we want to be more specific, we also can sort each category depend on the product volume and the degree of product standardization.
Intermittent operations can be divided into two types Project process (a type of process used to make a one at –a time product exactly to customer specifications). And the other type is Batch process (a type of process used to produce a small quantity of products in groups or batches based on customer orders or specifications).
On the other hand the Repetitive operations can be divided to Line process which is type of process used to produce a large volume of a standardization product. And also Continuous process which is type of process that operates continually to produce a high volume of fully scandalized product.
Companies should selection the process type that fit with its strategy relative to product volume and product customization, so if the company selected process type doesn’t fit with its strategy, it wouldn’t select the best process decision. Because each kind of operation has its suitable type, for example batch process could be very suitable for the bakery, but not