Impact of production forms on production logistics

The important form question for production

One hundred years ago, Henry Ford invented the assembly line and optimized the principle of continuous flow production. With this idea, production costs could be significantly reduced. Still, 100 years later, an assembly line has not been set up in every business. That is because the design of production logistics depends largely on the organizational form of production. Based on the form, varying demands are placed on logistics within a company.

Organizational forms of production

The production processes of chinaware and cars are naturally different. The differences in the process-related production forms arise as a result of the organizational arrangement of product units and the structure of the production processes. This structure is based on the form and continuity of the material flow and the location of the products. In fundamental terms, three organizational forms of production can be identified - workshop, assembly line and central production. All production types have their own individual impact on production logistics.

Workshop production

To produce chinaware, several workshops are needed to perform jobs like molding, grinding, decorating, firing and polishing. A workshop also covers the production units that perform the same types of manufacturing work and are located together in physical and organizational terms. In this work, processing steps are laid out for each type of chinaware. Every production job must be transported to the individual workshops in accordance with the sequence of the processing steps to be performed on the item. In the process, one job may have to be transported to the same workshop several times. This creates a large number of transports.
In workshop production, intermediate-storage inventories are often necessary because the transport of the material to the next respective processing site is typically done in a non-continuous manner in batches of various amounts. The difficulty associated with precisely coordinating the work and transport processes so that jobs can wait on processing at a work system or on transport steps after processing is another reason for intermediate-storage inventories. Another problem is to optimally coordinate capacity needs and availability in terms of delivery deadlines [1].

Assembly-line production

Just like 100 years ago at Ford, cars are still made on assembly lines - in the process, the car passes through stations such as the “stamping facility,” “body construction,” “paint shop,” “assembly” and “quality control.” In assembly-line production, the productive units are organized according to product departmentalization or the work schedules of the products to be processed.
In contrast to workshop production, shortages affect the entire production process as a result of the chain of production units. For this reason, material supply is governed by the requirement to have the feedstock permanently available. This, however, is constantly threatened by, among other things, downtime of working capital, an equipment breakdown or worker absences. For this reason, safety stocks must also be created. To continuously supply the production units, automakers frequently use the kanban system KANBAN [1].

Central production

Similar to workshop production, production units are bundled in groups in the case of central production. But all production equipment within the group is organized according to the continuous production principle. The aim is to optimally use the advantages of workshop and assembly line production.
The physical centralization considerably shortens transport distances and can reduce the necessary transports required to create a product or to process a job. The benefits of central production are reduced waiting times for jobs and the inventories linked to them in the intermediate-storage facilities as well as shortened throughput times. In addition to production responsibilities, workers employed in a production island also handle transports to and within the production island Production island , as well as the transfer and the storage of the material [1].

Program-related types of production

Program-related types of production focus on the products to be manufactured. Features of the various types include the product characteristics, the number of manufactured items and the size of the production run. As a result, items like beer, shoes, cars and airplanes are not made by the same type of production process. In fundamental terms, the types of production can be broken down into mass, batch, serial and individual processes. The selection of a type of production has a direct impact on production logistics.

Mass production

Products like beer and cement are mass produced. In mass production, it is the job of production logistics to supply the production units with the same feedstock for long periods of time. A key requirement here is a logistics system that, through a high level of mechanization, can continuously run as smoothly as possible [1].

Batch production

Shoes, gummi bears or fruit yogurt are also mass produced - but the batch is changed. In batch production, a special type of mass production, the production process must be interrupted every time a batch is changed and the production facility must be switched to handle the new batch. Logistics-relevant problems are the determination of the batch sequence and the production lots Production lots , which affect the size of the warehouse stocks [1].

Serial production

A typical example of serial production is the manufacture of various models of the same car brand. In serial production, the same production facilities are used to make individual series. These lines have to be retooled, a procedure that usually results in special costs. As a result, planning of the lot sizes is of particular importance. The logistics systems must be more flexible for this type of production than for mass and batch production [1].

Individual production

Airplanes, ships, large machines and installations are manufactured individually. In individual production, flexibility of the production logistics reaches the highest level because the manufacturing job nearly always involves an individual customer request. The production logistics system must therefore be able to provide the production units with constantly changing feedstock in terms of type and amount [1].

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