Factors Influencing Process Choices

• Volume: Average quantity of the products produced in a manufacturing system of

one type of product
– Low volume: project firms such as L&T, Thermax and BHEL
– High volume: FMCG firms, Automobile, Chemical Processing
– Mid-volume: Consumer durables, Electronics goods and several industrial products
• Variety: Number of products and variants of each product that is manufactured by
a firm to meet requirements of different types of customers
– Variety of product offerings introduces different types of processes, alternative
production resources, materials, and skill of workers
• Flow: Flow indicates the type of activities involved in conversion of components
and material from raw material stage to finished goods stage/assembled products –
continuous, intermittent, jumbled

• Refer to book for Product and Process matrix

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education
 Operations Systems
• Process characteristics depend on the path/flow of raw
materials/spare parts resulting into finished products in a
manufacturing system
• Process characteristics depend on Volume and variety of
products
• Three types of flows
– Continuous – Large Volume and small variety
• Process production flow - Steel, Petrochemicals, Sugar, paper
• MASS production systems – Automobile, Health care products, Electrical switches, consumer non-durables

– Intermittent – Medium Volume and Medium Variety

• Discrete manufacturing: Involving parts and assembling
• Process: Lotions where there is no assembly required

– Jumbled – High variety and low volume

• Project orders, Ship building, Made to order – Tailor, Gold smith

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education
 Videos
1. Sugar making – Continous Process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9J7pOU5FSg#aid=P9Ci8i1FfNA
2. Best & Crompton Apparels – Intermittent
3. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2soywk

1. Honda manufacturing plant – Mass production - Discrete

manufacturing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6V-vPVPGMI
2. Mercedes Benz C Class Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5xmVPr8Aa8

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education
 Layout Planning
• Layout planning in manufacturing & service organizations
– deals with physical arrangement of various resources/machines/men/facilities
that are available in the system
– with an objective to improve the performance of the operating system
• Benefits of good layout design
– Jobs in a manufacturing system travel lesser distance
– Less time taken per unit of production
– Customers spend less time in service systems
– Costs & Lead time come down
– Improved quality

Facilities: Canteen, rest rooms, Office, stores, bank branch, etc…

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education
 Types of Layout
• Process Layout
– arrangement of resources on the basis of the process characteristics of the resources
available ( All drilling machines in one place, Fees counter in College for all courses)
• Product Layout
– order in which the resources are placed follow exactly the visitation sequence dictated
by a product (Machines arranged in sequence of machining process)
• Group Technology (GT) Layout
– seeks to exploit commonality in manufacturing and uses this as the basis for grouping
components and resources – Machine parts, Automobile components
• Fixed Position Layout
– emphasis is not so much on optimum position of resources required for the process,
since the product itself largely dictates this; the focus is on gaining better control of
material flow and reducing delays . Large orders like Boilers, Bridges, Airport
construction

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education
 Line Balancing
Measures

Cycle time required = Available time/Desired units of production

Minimum number of Work stations = Sum of all Task times/Cycle time

Average resource utilization = Sum of all task times/(Number of Work

stations*Cycle time)

Mahadevan (2015), “Operations Management: Theory & Practice”, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education