Characteristics of Flow, Intermittent, and Project Manufacturing

Manufacturing System. 

The particular type of production control system used varies from company to company, but all should perform the preceding functions. Manufacturing processes can be conveniently organized into three categories: 

1. Flow Manufacturing
2. Intermittent Manufacturing
3. Project Manufacturing 

     Flow Manufacturing

     

    Flow manufacturing is concerned with the production of high-volume standard products.      These are four major characteristics to flow manufacturing: 

• Routings are fixed, and work centers are arranged according to the routing. The time taken to perform work at one work center is almost the same as at any other work center in the line.
• Work centers are dedicated to producing a limited range of similar products. Machinery and tooling are especially designed to make the specific products.
• Material flows from one workstation to another using some form of mechanical transfer. There is little buildup in work-in-process inventory, and throughput times are low.
• Capacity is fixed by the line.

Production activity control concentrates on planning the flow of work and making sure that the right material is fed to the line as stated in the planned schedule. Since work flows from one workstation to another automatically, implementation and control are relatively simple.

   Intermittent Manufacturing 

• Flow of work through the shop is varied and depends on the design of a particular product. 
• Machinery and workers must be flexible enough to do the variety of work. 
• Scheduling work to arrive just when needed is difficult, the time taken by an order at each work center varies, and work queues before work centers, causing long delays in processing.
• The capacity required depends on the particular mix of products being builts and is difficult to predict. 

      

    Project Manufacturing

  Involves the creation of one or a small number of units. Project manufacturing is highly flexible, because each project is usually significantly different from the one before it, even if the project’s size and expense and high degree of customization, project manufacturing can take an extremely long time to complete.

   

Credit by : yusof