Investing 56

homemoney to purchasehow The chart opposite shows that there must inevitably be a certain amount of overlap between these types, and that a clearcut distinction cannot be made between them. It is not proposed to discuss the detailed operations of production management, for many excellent textbooks have been devoted to this subject. The concern here is to appreciate the management problems implicit in production and these are described below as they affect the various stages of batch manufacture in engineering. No apology is offered for the detailed discussion; it is necessary for the proper Process Production" LargeBatch and Mass Production SmallBatch and Unit Production 1. Continuous flow production 2. Process production of chemicals in batches 3. Process production combined with the preparation of a product for sale by largebatch or massproduction methods 4. Mass production 5. Production of large batches 6. Production of components in large batches subsequently assembled diversely 7. Production of small batches 8. Fabrication of large equipments in stages 9. Manufacture of technically complex unit articles 10. Manufacture of simple unit articles to customer orders understanding of the complexity and scope of the problems met in a typical batchproduction factory. The previous section of this chapter outlined the management of finance and discussed how a business target is set. Once company policy is defined, management must work down in ever increasing detail, setting out to give instructions in sufficient detail, at the right time, to ensure that all the parts required for a given period's output are made or bought out as economically as possible; that they arrive at the right place at the right time to be tested, assembled, and dispatched to suit the sales plan. To do this requires a full appreciation and exercise of the function of production management. As a basis, a programme is drawn up by the sales and production managers and agreed at the highest possible level, generally by the managing director or the top execu Л . tive team. This is most important, since the programme I settles what the company will do and the scale of its opera |i tions, indeed, it is the whole plan of campaign of the Ij company. |i Each unit for delivery must be evaluated in terms of man ;; hours and machine hours to ensure that adequate capacity is available in every month of the year to meet the require iii ments. At this point, a need may be recognized for addi :