PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANGEMENT NOTES

Production/operations management is the process, which combines and transforms various

resources used in the production/operations subsystem of the organization into value added
product/services in a controlled manner as per the policies of the organization. Therefore, it
is that part of an organization, which is concerned with the transformation of a range of inputs
into the required (products/services) having the requisite quality level.

The set of interrelated management activities, which are involved in manufacturing certain
products, is called as production management. If the same concept is extended to services
management, then the corresponding set of management activities is called as operations
management.

For over two centuries operations and production management has been recognised as an
important factor in a country’s economic growth. The traditional view of manufacturing
management began in eighteenth century when Adam Smith recognised the economic
benefits of specialisation of labour. He recommended breaking of jobs down into subtasks
and recognises workers to specialised tasks in which they would become highly skilled and
efficient. In the early twentieth century, F.W. Taylor implemented Smith’s theories and
developed scientific management. From then till 1930, many techniques were developed
prevailing the traditional view.

Production management becomes the acceptable term from 1930s to 1950s. As F.W. Taylor’s
works become more widely known, managers developed techniques that focussed on
economic efficiency in manufacturing. Workers were studied in great detail to eliminate
wasteful efforts and achieve greater efficiency. At the same time, psychologists, socialists and
other social scientists began to study people and human behaviour in the working
environment. In addition, economists, mathematicians, and computer socialists contributed
newer, more sophisticated analytical approaches.

With the 1970s emerges two distinct changes in our views. The most obvious of these,
reflected in the new name operations management was a shift in the service and
manufacturing sectors of the economy. As service sector became more prominent, the
change from ‘production’ to ‘operations’ emphasized the broadening of our field to service
organizations. The second, more suitable change was the beginning of an emphasis on
synthesis, rather than just analysis, in management practices.

Objectives of Production and Operations Management

• Maximum customer satisfaction through quality, reliability, cost and delivery time.
• Optimum inventory levels
• Optimum utilisation of resources
• Maximum employee satisfaction
• Minimum wastage and maximum possible production i.e. right quantity
• Effective and efficient productivity
 • Early recognition of threats and opportunities i.e. helps in analysing the market

Scope of Production and Operations Management

LOCATION OF FACILITIES
Location of facilities for operations is a long-term capacity decision which involves a long term
commitment about the geographically static factors that affect a business organization. It is
an important strategic level decision-making for an organization. It deals with the questions
such as ‘where our main operations should be based?’
The selection of location is a key-decision as large investment is made in building plant and
machinery. An improper location of plant may lead to waste of all the investments made in
plant and machinery equipments. Hence, location of plant should be based on the company’s
expansion plan and policy, diversification plan for the products, changing sources of raw
materials and many other factors. The purpose of the location study is to find the optimal
location that will results in the greatest advantage to the organization.

PLANT LAYOUT AND MATERIAL HANDLING

Plant layout refers to the physical arrangement of facilities. It is the configuration of
departments, work centers and equipment in the conversion process. The overall objective
of the plant layout is to design a physical arrangement that meets the required output quality
and quantity most economically.
According to James Moore, “Plant layout is a plan of an optimum arrangement of facilities
including personnel, operating equipment, storage space, material handling equipments and
all other supporting services along with the design of best structure to contain all these
facilities”.
‘Material Handling’ refers to the ‘moving of materials from the store room to the machine
and from one machine to the next during the process of manufacture’. It is also defined as
the ‘art and science of moving, packing and storing of products in any form’. It is a specialized
activity for a modern manufacturing concern, with 50 to 75% of the cost of production. This
cost can be reduced by proper section, operation and maintenance of material handling
devices. Material handling devices increases the output, improves quality, speeds up the
deliveries and decreases the cost of production. Hence, material handling is a prime
consideration in the designing new plant and several existing plants.

PRODUCT DESIGN
Product design deals with conversion of ideas into reality. Every business organization has to
design, develop and introduce new products as a survival and growth strategy. Developing
the new products and launching them in the market is the biggest challenge faced by the
organizations.
The entire process of need identification to physical manufactures of product involves three
functions: marketing, product development, and manufacturing. Product development
translates the needs of customers given by marketing into technical specifications and
designing the various features into the product to these specifications. Manufacturing has the
responsibility of selecting the processes by which the product can be manufactured. Product
design and development provides link between marketing, customer needs and expectations
and the activities required to manufacture the product.

PROCESS DESIGN

Process design is a macroscopic decision-making of an overall process route for converting

the raw material into finished goods. These decisions encompass the selection of a process,
choice of technology, process flow analysis and layout of the facilities. Hence, the important
decisions in process design are to analyze the workflow for converting raw material into
finished product and to select the workstation for each included in the workflow.

PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL

Production planning and control can be defined as the process of planning the production in
advance, setting the exact route of each item, fixing the starting and finishing dates for each
item, to give production orders to shops and to follow up the progress of products according
to orders.
The principle of production planning and control lies in the statement ‘First Plan Your Work
and then Work on Your Plan’.

QUALITY CONTROL
Quality Control (QC) may be defined as ‘a system that is used to maintain a desired level of
quality in a product or service’. It is a systematic control of various factors that affect the
quality of the product. Quality control aims at prevention of defects at the source, relies on
effective feed back system and corrective action procedure.
Quality control can also be defined as ‘that industrial management technique by means of
which product of uniform acceptable quality is manufactured’. It is the entire collection of
activities which ensures that the operation will produce the optimum quality products at
minimum cost.

The main objectives of quality control are:

 • To improve the companies income by making the production more acceptable to the
customers i.e., by providing long life, greater usefulness, maintainability, etc.
• To reduce companies cost through reduction of losses due to defects.
• To achieve interchangeability of manufacture in large scale production.
• To produce optimal quality at reduced price.
• To ensure satisfaction of customers with productions or services or high quality level,
to build customer goodwill, confidence and reputation of manufacturer.
• To make inspection prompt to ensure quality control.
• To check the variation during manufacturing.

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

Materials management is that aspect of management function which is primarily concerned

with the acquisition, control and use of materials needed and flow of goods and services
connected with the production process having some predetermined objectives in view.

The main objectives of materials management are:

• To minimize material cost.

• To purchase, receive, transport and store materials efficiently and to reduce the
related cost.
• To cut down costs through simplification, standardization, value analysis, import
substitution, etc.
• To trace new sources of supply and to develop cordial relations with them in order
to ensure continuous supply at reasonable rates.
• To reduce investment tied in the inventories for use in other productive purposes
and to develop high inventory turnover ratios.
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
In modern industry, equipment and machinery are a very important part of the total
productive effort. Therefore, their idleness or downtime becomes are very expensive. Hence,
it is very important that the plant machinery should be properly maintained.
The main objectives of maintenance management are:

1. To achieve minimum breakdown and to keep the plant in good working condition at
the lowest possible cost.
2. To keep the machines and other facilities in such a condition that permits them to
be used at their optimal capacity without interruption.
3. To ensure the availability of the machines, buildings and services required by other
sections of the factory for the performance of their functions at optimal return on
investment.

TYPES OF PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The production system of an organisation is that part, which produces products of an
organisation. It is that activity whereby resources, flowing within a defined system, are
combined and transformed in a controlled manner to add value in accordance with the
policies communicated by management.

Characteristics of production system are as follows-

• Production is an organised activity, so every production system has an objective.

• The system transforms various inputs to useful outputs.

• It does not operate in isolation from other organisation system.

• There exists a feedback about the activities, which is essential to control and improve
system performance.

JOB-SHOP PRODUCTION
Job shop production are characterised by manufacturing of one or few quantity of products
designed and produced as per the specification of customers within prefixed time and cost.
The distinguishing feature of this is low volume and high variety of products.

A job shop comprises of general purpose machines arranged into different departments. Each
job demands unique technological requirements, demands processing on machines in a
certain sequence.
This type of production is most commonly observed when you produce one single unit of a
product. A typical example of the same will be tailored outfits which are made just for you or
a cake which is made just like you want it.

Example of Unit type of production

It is one of the most common types of products used because it is generally used by small
businesses like restaurants, individual products providers or individual services providers.

It is also a type of production used by very premium companies like Harley Davidson, or Dell.
Harley Davidson actually has a lot of accessories which can be customized, and which suit the
individual. Same ways, you can design your own DELL laptop on their website with the given
specifications.

Characteristics
The Job-shop production system is followed when there is:
1. High variety of products and low volume.
2. Use of general purpose machines and facilities.
3. Highly skilled operators who can take up each job as a challenge because of uniqueness.
4. Large inventory of materials, tools, parts.
5. Detailed planning is essential for sequencing the requirements of each product, capacities
for each work centre and order priorities.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of job shop production:
1. Because of general purpose machines and facilities variety of products can be produced.
2. Operators will become more skilled and competent, as each job gives them learning
opportunities.
3. Full potential of operators can be utilised.
4. Opportunity exists for creative methods and innovative ideas.

Limitations
Following are the limitations of job shop production:
1. Higher cost due to frequent set up changes.
2. Higher level of inventory at all levels and hence higher inventory cost.
3. Production planning is complicated.
4. Larger space requirements.

BATCH PRODUCTION

Batch production is defined by American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) “as
a form of manufacturing in which the job passes through the functional departments in lots
or batches and each lot may have a different routing.” It is characterised by the manufacture
of limited number of products produced at regular intervals and stocked awaiting sales.

It is one of the types of production most commonly used in consumer durables, FMCG or
other such industries where there are large variety of products with variable demands. Batch
production takes place in batches. The manufacturer already knows the number of units
he needs to a manufacturer and they are manufactured in one batch.
So, if a manufacturer has the shortage of Product X and 100 units of this product is consumed
in one month, then the manufacturer can give orders for batch production of 100 units of
Product X.

Example of Batch production: LG has many different types of home appliance products in
its portfolio. It has to manufacture all these different variants of the same type of product.
There would be 10-20 types of mixer grinders alone in the product portfolio of LG home
appliances. Thus, a company like LG manufactures these variants via Batch production.

First, one type of mixer will be manufactured completely and then the second type will be
manufactured. They are manufactured on the basis of demand. Depending on demand, the
batch production can produce the number of units required in one batch.

The batches may be as small as 10 units or they may be as large as 1 lakh units of the same
products. However, as long as there is a defined quantity of product which has to be
manufactured before moving on to the next item in the list, it is known as batch production.
Examples of batch production include FMCG like Biscuits, confectionaries, packaged food
items etc. It is used in Medicines, Hardware, Consumer durables and many such industries.

Characteristics
Batch production system is used under the following circumstances:
1. When there is shorter production runs.
2. When plant and machinery are flexible.
3. When plant and machinery set up is used for the production of item in a batch and change
of set up is required for processing the next batch.
4. When manufacturing lead time and cost are lower as compared to job order production.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of batch production:
1. Better utilisation of plant and machinery.
2. Promotes functional specialisation.
3. Cost per unit is lower as compared to job order production.
4. Lower investment in plant and machinery.
5. Flexibility to accommodate and process number of products.
6. Job satisfaction exists for operators.

Limitations
Following are the limitations of batch production:
1. Material handling is complex because of irregular and longer flows.
2. Production planning and control is complex.
3. Work in process inventory is higher compared to continuous production.
4. Higher set up costs due to frequent changes in set up.

MASS PRODUCTION
Manufacture of discrete parts or assemblies using a continuous process are called mass
production. This production system is justified by very large volume of production. The
machines are arranged in a line or product layout. Product and process standardisation exists
and all outputs follow the same path.
One of the best examples of mass production is the manufacturing process adopted by Ford.
Mass production is also known as flow production or assembly line production. It is one of
the most common types of products used in the automobile industry and is also used in
industries where continuous production is required.

An Assembly line or mass production plant typically focus on specialization. There are multiple
workstations installed and the assembly line goes through all the workstations turn by turn.
The work is done in a specialized manner and each workstation is responsible for one single
type of work. As a result, these workstations are very efficient and production due to which
the whole assembly line becomes productive and efficient.

Products which are manufactured using mass production are very standardized products.
High sophistication is used in the manufacturing of these products. If 1000 products are
manufactured using mass production, each one of them should be exactly the same. There
should be no deviation in the product manufactured.

Characteristics
Mass production is used under the following circumstances:\
1. Standardisation of product and process sequence.
2. Dedicated special purpose machines having higher production capacities and output rates.
3. Large volume of products.
4. Shorter cycle time of production.
5. Lower in process inventory.
6. Perfectly balanced production lines.
7. Flow of materials, components and parts is continuous and without any back tracking.
8. Production planning and control is easy.
9. Material handling can be completely automatic.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of mass production:
1. Higher rate of production with reduced cycle time.
2. Higher capacity utilisation due to line balancing.
3. Less skilled operators are required.
4. Low process inventory.
5. Manufacturing cost per unit is low.
Limitations
Following are the limitations of mass production:
1. Breakdown of one machine will stop an entire production line.
2. Line layout needs major change with the changes in the product design.
3. High investment in production facilities.
4. The cycle time is determined by the slowest operation.

CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION
Production facilities are arranged as per the sequence of production operations from the first
operations to the finished product. The items are made to flow through the sequence of
operations through material handling devices such as conveyors, transfer devices, etc.
There is a lot of confusion between mass production and continuous production. It can be
differentiated by a single element. The amount of mechanical work involved. In Mass
production, both machines and humans work in tandem. However, in continuous production,
most of the work is done by machines rather than humans. In continuous production, the
production is continuous,24×7 hours, all days in a year.

A good example of the Continous production is brewing. In brewing, the production goes on
24 hours a day and 365 days a year. This is because brewing takes a lot of time and production
is important. As a result, there is a continuous input of raw materials such as malt or water,
and there is continuous output in the form of beer or other alcoholic drink. The key factor in
this is that the brewing and fermentation process itself is time-consuming, and the maximum
time is spent in the fermentation which is a continuous process.

There are many chemicals which are manufactured in the form of a continuous process due
to the huge demand across the world. Similarly, the Plastic industry is known to adopt the
continuous production methodology where production can go continuously for weeks or
months depending on the demand. Once the production starts, you only need to feed in the
raw material, and the machines turn out the finalized products.

Characteristics
Continuous production is used under the following circumstances:
1. Dedicated plant and equipment with zero flexibility.
2. Material handling is fully automated.
3. Process follows a predetermined sequence of operations.
4. Component materials cannot be readily identified with final product.
5. Planning and scheduling is a routine action.

Advantages
Following are the advantages of continuous production:
1. Standardisation of product and process sequence.
2. Higher rate of production with reduced cycle time.

3. Higher capacity utilisation due to line balancing.

4. Manpower is not required for material handling as it is completely automatic.

5. Person with limited skills can be used on the production line.
6. Unit cost is lower due to high volume of production.

Limitations
Following are the limitations of continuous production:
1. Flexibility to accommodate and process number of products does not exist.
2. Very high investment for setting flow lines.
3. Product differentiation is limited.

Transformation Model
A transformation process is any activity or group of activities that takes one or more inputs,
transforms and adds value to them, and provides outputs for customers or clients. Where the
inputs are raw materials, it is relatively easy to identify the transformation involved, as when
milk is transformed into cheese and butter. Where the inputs are information or people, the
nature of the transformation may be less obvious. For example, a hospital transforms ill
patients (the input) into healthy patients (the output).
Transformation processes include:
• changes in the physical characteristics of materials or customers
• changes in the location of materials, information or customers
• changes in the ownership of materials or information
• storage or accommodation of materials, information or customers
• changes in the purpose or form of information
• changes in the physiological or psychological state of customers.
Often all three types of input – materials, information and customers – are transformed by
the same organisation. For example, withdrawing money from a bank account involves
information about the customer's account, materials such as cheques and currency, and the
customer. Treating a patient in hospital involves not only the ‘customer's’ state of health, but
also any materials used in treatment and information about the patient.
One useful way of categorising different types of transformation is into:
• manufacture – the physical creation of products (for example cars)
• transport – the movement of materials or customers (for example a taxi service)
 • supply – change in ownership of goods (for example in retailing)
• service – the treatment of customers or the storage of materials (for example
hospital wards, warehouses).
Several different transformations are usually required to produce a good or service. The
overall transformation can be described as the macro operation, and the more detailed
transformations within this macro operation as micro operations. For example, the macro
operation in a brewery is making beer (Figure 2). The micro operations include:
• milling the malted barley into grist
• mixing the grist with hot water to form wort
• cooling the wort and transferring it to the fermentation vessel
• adding yeast to the wort and fermenting the liquid into beer
• filtering the beer to remove the spent yeast
• decanting the beer into casks or bottles.

Systems Perspective of Operation Management

A system is a group of interrelated items in which no item studied in isolation will act in the
same way as it would in the system. The system’s boundary defines what is inside the system
and what is outside. A system’s environment is everything outside the system boundary that
may have an impact on the behaviour of the system. A system’s inputs are the physical objects
of information that enter it from the environment and its outputs are the same which leave
it for the environment.

An organisation is considered as a system having several subsystems such as finance,

marketing, accounting, personnel, engineering, purchasing and physical distribution systems
in addition to the operations subsystem. Marketing subsystem has to make available the
products for their consumption. It receives sales orders which are communicated to the
production subsystem. Production utilizes raw materials, which are processed on plant and
machinery to turn out a value added finished products. While manufacturing the product ,
the production function organizes its resources in accordance with the production plan. The
finance function makes available finance necessary to carry out their functions to all other
departments. Personnel is a support function which plans and provides manpower to all other
subsystems. It formulates suitable personnel policies.

All these systems are not independent but are interrelated to one another in many vital ways.
The coordination amongst various sub-systems is necessary for effective functioning of any
organisation.
PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL

For efficient, effective and economical operation in a manufacturing unit of an organization,

it is essential to integrate the production planning and control system. Production planning
and subsequent production control follow adaption of product design and finalization of a
production process.
Production planning and control address a fundamental problem of low productivity,
inventory management and resource utilization.

Production planning is required for scheduling, dispatch, inspection, quality management,

inventory management, supply management and equipment management. Production
control ensures that production team can achieve required production target, optimum
utilization of resources, quality management and cost savings.

Planning and control are an essential ingredient for success of an operation unit. The
benefits of production planning and control are as follows:

• It ensures that optimum utilization of production capacity is achieved, by proper

scheduling of the machine items which reduces the idle time as well as over use.
• It ensures that inventory level are maintained at optimum levels at all time, i.e.
there is no over-stocking or under-stocking.
• It also ensures that production time is kept at optimum level and thereby
increasing the turnover time.
• Since it overlooks all aspects of production, quality of final product is always
maintained.
Production Planning

Production planning is one part of production planning and control dealing with basic
concepts of what to produce, when to produce, how much to produce, etc. It involves taking
a long-term view at overall production planning. Therefore, objectives of production planning
are as follows:

• To ensure right quantity and quality of raw material, equipment, etc. are
available during times of production.
• To ensure capacity utilization is in tune with forecast demand at all the time.
A well thought production planning ensures that overall production process is streamlined
providing following benefits:

• Organization can deliver a product in a timely and regular manner.

• Supplier are informed will in advance for the requirement of raw materials.
• It reduces investment in inventory.
• It reduces overall production cost by driving in efficiency.
Production planning takes care of two basic strategies’ product planning and process
planning. Production planning is done at three different time dependent levels i.e. long-range
planning dealing with facility planning, capital investment, location planning, etc.; medium-
range planning deals with demand forecast and capacity planning and lastly short term
planning dealing with day to day operations.
Production Control

Production control looks to utilize different type of control techniques to achieve optimum
performance out of the production system as to achieve overall production planning targets.
Therefore, objectives of production control are as follows:

• Regulate inventory management

• Organize the production schedules
• Optimum utilization of resources and production process
The advantages of robust production control are as follows:

• Ensure a smooth flow of all production processes

• Ensure production cost savings thereby improving the bottom line
• Control wastage of resources
• It maintains standard of quality through the production life cycle.
Production control cannot be same across all the organization. Production control is
dependent upon the following factors:

• Nature of production( job oriented, service oriented, etc.)

• Nature of operation
• Size of operation
Production planning and control are essential for customer delight and overall success of an
organization.

Relation between production planning and production control

• The planning and control is an integral part of the system and it is very difficult to
isolate one from the other. They are so inter-related that one is always identified
with the other. Planning concerns with the formulation of production strategies
and targets for the enterprise whereas control is vested with actual
implementation and execution of planned Objectives. Production planning
determines the operations required to manufacture the product and control
regulates and supervises these operations. Through production control
information the organization can locate shortcomings in the planning process and
the necessary modifications can be done at the time of planning in the future.
Similarly, production control operations can be improved to adjust with the
planning requirements.

The objectives of production planning and control are to:

• Optimize resources and the scheduling of resources to meet production demand
• Ensure an efficient schedule
• Have resources ready when needed
• Keep inventory at optimal levels
• Increase productivity of internal resources (human, work centers, machines, tooling,
etc.)
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Ensure the right person gets assigned to specific processes
• Coordinate with other departments (sales, customer service, purchasing, etc.)
Steps in Production Planning and Control:
Production control involves the following steps:
Out of these six steps involved in production control, the first three steps relate to planning;
the fourth relates to execution of plan and the last two refer to the control aspect of planning.
The above idea is depicted by means of the following diagram:

(1) Planning:
For planning of productive operations in detail, the planning department will receive full
information from management about the quantity to be produced and the dates when
delivery has been promised to customers. The planning department will also get the
necessary engineering and drawing specifications from the engineering department.

(2) Routing:
Routing involves the determination of the path that work shall follow and the order in which
various operations will be carried out. The objective of routing is to find out the best and the
cheapest sequence of operations. While preparing the route card, it must be kept in mind
that machines in the plant are operated at their full capacity; and manpower and other
facilities are best utilized.

(3) Scheduling:
Scheduling is the determination of the time that should be required to perform each
operation and also the time necessary to perform the entire series, as routed, making
allowance for factors concerned. It involves the preparation of a time-table, indicating the
total time needed for the manufacture of a product as also the time expected to be spent at
each machine and process.

In preparing schedules, the persons concerned will have to take into consideration the various
types of orders on hand and the dates by which their completion has been promised. Some
orders may be such as will require over-time work; because completion is not possible
according to the delivery dates set for them, in the regular course of production.

(4) Dispatching:
Dispatching literally means sending something towards a particular destination. Here, it
means taking all such steps, as are necessary to implement the programme of production
chalked out as per routing and scheduling steps.
(5) Follow-Up (or Checking the Progress):
Follow-up is the control aspect of production planning and control. It involves taking steps to
check up whether work proceeds according to plans and how far there are variances from
standards; and also taking necessary corrective steps to set things in order.

(6) Inspection:
Inspection is the quality control aspect of production planning and control. It ensures that
goods produced are of the right quality. The inspectors may inspect materials, semi-finished
and finished products either at the work bench or in special laboratories or testing rooms.

To ensure maintenance of high standards of quality, a programme of SQC (Statistical Quality

Control) may be fused with a system of production planning and control.

Product Design

Product design is one of the crucial stages in Operations Management. The design of a
product or service is one of the most important steps. This will definitely affect the earnings
of the product.

The basic limiting characteristics of the production system design are set during the product
design phase. In designing the product, or the item to be processed in nonmanufacturing
systems, the product designer specifies materials, basic configurations, methods of joining
parts and the like, and through these specifications sets the minimum possible production
cost.

The conscious effort to design for low manufacturing cost is often referred to as product
design. Given the product design, process planning for manufacture must be carried out to
specify the process required and the sequence of the processes.

The two basic steps in designing a product are functional design and production design

Functional Design
In the functional design step, the product is designed to be functional. Decisions are made on
dimensions, materials to be used, type of final finish required for appearance and so on. At
this stage, the designer is more concerned with the product itself than the methods of
production. The main concerns are functional considerations, customer appeal, cost and ease
of operation and maintenance.

Production Design
In the production design stage, the designer considers the introduction of modifications and
new concepts into the product to make it more suitable for production. Some of the concepts
employed in this stage include:
Standardization: The designer can facilitate the production of the part by standardization of
a part or the whole product. Standardization can also cut production costs by eliminating the
need for planning for several different product varieties. It allows firms to work larger and
often economical, quantities of fewer items. However, standardization has limitations such
as forestalling improvements and fewer options for customers.
Modular Design: Modular Designs facilitate production and maintenance. This type of design
is used extensively in computers. Products are made easily detachable subassemblies or
sections.
Simplification: Sometimes the designer may include some features in the design that,
although not very critical to the function of the product, create severe problems in the
production stage. To correct these situations, sometimes some parts of the design must be
simplified.
Once developed, many products also undergo value analysis (value engineering). This is an
attempt to see if any materials or parts can be substituted or redesigned in such a way as to
continue to perform the desired or intended function but at a lower cost.
The nature of product design can affect costs in a wide variety of cost categories, going far
beyond the direct labor and material costs involved. A list of categories affected by product
design include:
• Raw material
• Equipment
• Direct Labor
• Indirect labor
• Tooling
• Engineering
• Sales and administration
Many of the indirect costs tend to be hidden. For example, the number of individual parts in
a design can drastically, affect the indirect costs due to greater paperwork and the greater
cost of ordering, storing and controlling the larger number of parts. Thus, the selection of
product design must reflect consideration of all the foregoing factors.

Factors affecting design of a product

1. Customer Requirements
One of the important aspects is to meet and satisfy customer requirements. Since the end-
users are the ones who leverage the product and so it’s a designer duty to get the
requirements from the client before formulating the prototype and conceptualizing the
idealogy. To fit in all possible variations & conditions, the designed product needs to be
streamlined in a way it draws attention and convinces the targeted audience. Also, the
designer should be able to eradicate the use of high-end technologies if it creates a negative
feeling or unlike emotions to the client.
2. Functionality
Meeting the purpose for which the product is designed gives away great customer
satisfaction. The designed product should be functionally commanding and should be
extensively meeting the end goal. Functionality is one such factor influencing product design,
and again it’s the designers’ responsibility to maintain the coordination between the look and
the way it needs to work.
3. Cost
A product designer must balance the top-notch appeal and the cost-effectiveness together.
Saying so, the cost comes next in the list of factors affecting product design. Acquiring all the
required essentials in the allocated budget marks the designer’s name everywhere. This is
one big pressure that a designer holds before crafting the creative outlet. Thus, the cost stays
as a valid factor in determining the high quality in a great functional product.
4. Materials
Having adequate knowledge of the material before designing a product is essential. The
designer must be updated and well renewed with all the new materials & technologies
existing in the market. The quality material preferred while producing a product gives major
impacts on the design part. In order to impress the audience and to create the desired
product, the designer must be aware of the availability of new and better materials.
5. Shapes
Acquiring the desired shape & size end up in determining the technology that the product
needs to build. Also, customers welcome a product if it follows the current trend & fashion.
So all these factors need to be considered while designing the product.
6. Durability
In addition to effective product design, product protection is also very essential and that
should be as environment-specific protection. If your product is going to be used in an
industrial setup then it must follow the IP (Ingress Protection) that is considered to prevent
from falling quickly due to water and dust. Therefore, power tools must be resistant to dust
and particles, some may even need to be water-resistant. And, if the products are intended
to be used outdoors for a longer time then it should ensure that they are well sealed and have
a quality finish to prevent degradation. This also marks as important factors affecting product
design and determining its durability.
7. Culture
If a product is targeted only to a particular culture and state, then this needs to be kept in
mind while designing that as a certain culture may accept your design while others may find
it offensive. For the long-lasting capabilities, it is important to consider the environmental
factor as well.

Process Planning and Process Design

At the time of designing a product, preliminary consideration is given to the capacity of the
firm to manufacture the product. The technology required and the particular machines and
processes needed are determined and compared to what is available in the firm. If production
is compatible with the existing manufacturing capacity or if the needed capacity can be
acquired ,the decision is taken to continue designing the product .If not, the decision may be
to terminate the design effort.
After the final design of the product has been completed, process planning, and process
design must be taken up. As the process plans are firmly established, the processing time
requirements of specific machinery and equipment are generated. These processing time
requirements must be evaluated against available capacity and against the cost of acquiring
the new machines and equipments required before a final decision is made to produce the
product.

Process Planning:
Process planning is concerned with planning the conversion or transformation processes
needed to convert the materials into finished products .A production process is a series of
manufacturing operations performed at workstations to achieve the design specifications of
the planned output .A vast number of different operations and various kinds of equipments
and machines may be required to produce a complex product (for e.g. an aircraft or a ship).
Simpler parts may require fewer operations (for e.g. a bolt and a nut).
Process planning consists of two parts namely:
1. Process design
2. Operations design
Both stages provide information on what is required to effectively utilize the existing
equipment and machinery and to determine what new equipment and machinery would be
required.

Process Design:
Process design is concerned with the overall sequence of operations required to achieve the
product specifications. It specifies the type of work-stations that are to be used, the machines
and equipment necessary and the quantities in which each are required.
The sequence of operations in the manufacturing process is determined by:
1. The nature of the product
2. The materials used
3. The quantities being produced
4. The existing physical layout of the plant.

Operations Design:
Operations design is concerned with the design of the individual manufacturing operations.
It consists of examining the man-machine relationship in the manufacturing process for
converting the raw materials into the finished or semi-finished product. Operations design
must specify how much of man and machine time is required for each unit of production.