Lesson video

Hi there, everybody, and welcome to your Design and Technology lesson for today.

My name is Mr. Booth.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Today we're gonna be looking at scales of production in manufacturing.

We're gonna look at four different scales of production, all depending on how many products these manufacturers are making.

This is part of your Technical Principles unit.

So let's have a look at today's outcome.

Today's outcome: by the end of today, I want you to describe the different scales of production and be able to use examples when you are doing those descriptions.

It's really important that you can draw on these examples when you are talking about the different scales of production.

We have five keywords for today.

The first four are all about those different scales of production.

The first one is one-off production, where you manufacture a single, unique product.

We then have batch production, manufacturing a set number of identical products.

We then have mass production, large numbers of products made on a production line, usually using automation.

And then we have continuous production, non-stop, high-volume production.

And the last keyword is economies of scale.

This is of course, when we're talking about as product increases, the cost of each unit decreases.

We have two learning cycles today.

We're gonna look at small to medium-scale production, and then we're gonna look at large-scale production.

So let's start with small to medium-scale production.

In manufacturing, products can be made in different quantities depending on a few different things.

These include demand, how many products you need to make to satisfy that demand, the costs of manufacturing, and obviously how you're gonna sell the product, and of course the resources available to those manufacturers.

This is known as the scale of production.

Scales of production affect how a product is designed and manufactured.

For small to medium production, there's two types of production.

There's one-off and there's batch, and that's what we're gonna focus on now.

Quick check for understanding.

In manufacturing, what does scale of production refer to? Is it a, the speed at which a worker completes the task, b, the color and style of the product, c, the number of products made, or d, the type of materials chosen.

Pause the video now.

Come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course c, the number of products made.

One-off production is where a single, unique product is custom-made to a client's specific requirements.

We can also call this bespoke.

Each product is different and the process is often made by very highly skilled workers.

Examples of these include handcrafted jewelry, prototypes of products before they enter manufacturing, and of course tailored clothing such as wedding dresses and tailored suits.

Now you can imagine, for each of these, these are gonna be bespoke.

They're often suited to your needs.

You often order them individually based on what you want.

Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna use an analogy like this to talk about production cost.

This is a really simplified version of what actually happens in manufacturing, but this is a nice way to show you how production costs are spread over units that are made.

So in one-off production, this usually requires very highly skilled craft people, and it's highly labor intensive because it's usually one person carrying out the entire process.

Products made using this scale often take a long time to create because each part is individually designed and made.

And as a consequence of this, one-off products are expensive since labors and material costs are spread over only one product.

So let's just imagine that we have a production cost of 100 pounds.

We're only making two units because we've got so much labor-intensive work to do.

So actually our unit costs are 50 pounds each.

So you can see there that the production costs spread over a couple of units mean that it's quite expensive.

So what we're gonna do throughout this lesson is we are gonna summarize our scales of production using a table like this.

This is a nice way of comparing them all against each other.

So for one-off production, the number of workers is one or only a very few of highly skilled people.

The skill level is very high.

Obviously they've got to be highly skilled because they are doing all the work.

Production speed is very slow because again it's one person making something which usually is quite complicated.

Production flexibility is extremely high.

The person can decide what to do.

It is bespoke.

You get to decide exactly what you want your product to look like.

But that of course means that the unit cost is also very high.

Now, a nice example for this is wood carving, okay? This is one-off production.

The intricate details take a very long time to manufacture.

You imagine if you had to carve furniture like that.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of these is an example of one-off production? Is it a, a set amount of identical printed books, b, a hand-carved sculpture, c, bottled water, or d, newspaper? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course b, a hand-carved sculpture.

We're now looking at batch production.

Now this is where a set number of identical parts are made at the same time before resetting equipment or machinery for a different run.

Quantities usually range from tens to several thousand units at a time, depending on the product and the demand of that product.

We've got some nice examples here as well.

Baked goods are one of the most popular examples for this.

Seasonal fashion, we have printed items, and of course flat-pack furniture.

Again, we're gonna use our production cost of 100 pound analogy here.

So batch production is more efficient than one-off as the process is repeated several times for more than one item, for several items, sometimes even thousands of items. It also uses semi-skilled workers.

And the reason for that is because we started to introduce machinery or standardized ways of doing things in our production methods.

It's highly flexible because machinery can be reset for a new batch, and variations can be made quickly, for example, different baked goods or seasonal variations and limited editions.

Once again, batch produced products are cheaper since the production costs are spread over more units.

And you can see that from the analogy on the right-hand side.

So here we're now making five units, so that means our production cost of 100 pound is spread over those.

Again, a simplified way of thinking about it, but it's a nice way to show you how batch products are cheaper.

Let's summarize it again in our table.

So the number of workers, it's now moderate.

So we obviously need a few workers to work on these batch production lines.

The skill level is also moderate, not as high as one-off because we standardized the way that we're doing things.

The production speed is moderate, so we've got much faster than one-off because again we're probably using some kind of machinery or standardized ways.

And then the production flexibility is high because of course we're making batches.

Once we finish the batch, we stop, we reset the machinery, and then we can make a different product.

Now the unit cost obviously is moderate as well as you saw from the analogy on the previous page.

And let's look at some nice examples for this.

Well, seasonal decorations.

I'm sure seasonal decorations, the different decorations that we have all year round, such as door wreaths.

Now these are a good example of batch production because they're flexible in quantity and design.

And of course nobody is buying door wreaths in July, are they? So we need to use batch production for these.

Check for understanding.

Which of the following are examples of batch production? A, a craftsperson making a single custom wooden chair, b, a baker making 50 loaves of bread at a time, c, an energy plant generating electricity non-stop, or d, a factory producing thousands of sun hats? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've done that.

Well, you could of course have said b, a baker making 50 loaves of bread at a time, and of course d, a factory producing sun hats, 'cause that's of course seasonal fashion.

We're now gonna look at the benefits and limitations of one-off and batch.

It's nice to be able to compare these two small to medium scales of productions together.

It's nice to be able to do that.

So first of all, we've got one-off production.

So let's remember that the benefits, personalization, you get to decide exactly what your product looks like and how it's made.

High quality materials are usually used in these because they're one-off, they're bespoke.

You also get that unique design.

The limitations of that of course mean that it's high cost.

It's time-consuming, one person making these, and that's why, again, if I use the example of a wedding dress, you have to go and get your fittings months before the big day.

And of course it's very dependent on skilled labor.

You have to have very skilled people doing these for this run of production.

We then have batch production.

It's lower cost per unit than of course one-off.

You get that consistent quality because we've now standardized aspects of it.

It's flexible.

Once you've finished your batch, you can reset machinery and make a different product.

But of course we have tooling costs.

That's one of the limitations.

So we've gotta think about that before we start.

So you've got quite high setup costs.

And then of course you've got to keep up with trends.

That's quite difficult to do, especially if we're talking about fashion.

Check for understanding.

Which limitation is shared by both one-off and batch production? Is it a, dependence on skilled/semi-skilled labor? Is it b, can produce thousands of items quickly? Is it c, always fully automated? Or is it d, no flexibility in design? Pause the video now, answer this, come back to me when you've done that.

It is of course a, dependence on skilled/semi-skilled labor.

Well done.

So now let's look at the economies of scale, those two analogies we use when we're looking at production costs.

So the economies of scale means that the more you produce, the cheaper each item becomes because fixed costs are spread over more units.

So when we looked at that one-off production cost when we were making those two units, we can see it's only spread over those two, so it's far more expensive than batch production, which we can see the unit costs has reduced 'cause we're spreading it over more units.

It's as simple as that.

Check for understanding.

Why are unit costs usually lower in batch production compared to one-off production? Is it a, because workers require no training, b, because equipment is never reset, c, because each item is unique, or d, because costs are spread over several identical products? Pause the video now, have a go at this, and come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course d, because costs are spread over several identical parts.

Well done.

Now on to Task A, your first task.

The first thing I want you to do is define one-off production and give an example.

I then want you to compare batch production with one-off production.

And then finally, I want you to explain how economies of scale affect the unit cost in batch production.

Pause the video now, have a go at these, come back to me when you've completed the task.

So let's have a look at what your answers might have been.

So first of all, I wanted you to define one-off production and give an example.

Well, one-off production is when a single, unique product is made to meet specific customer requirements.

An example is a bespoke wooden chair.

I then want you to compare batch production with one-off production.

Batch production makes groups of identical products, which reduces costs per item and increases efficiency.

One-off production makes customized, unique items that are more expensive and time-consuming.

Batch production is less flexible than one-off production, but it can meet demand more quickly.

Finally, I wanted you to explain how the economies of scale affect the unit cost in batch production.

Well, in batch production, the cost of machinery and tooling can be spread over several identical products.

This means that as more products are made, the cost per unit decreases.

Therefore economies of scale reduce the price compared to one-off production.

Well done.

We're now onto our second learning cycle, large-scale production.

Large-scale production involves making products in very high volumes, often using automated machinery.

When we talk about high-volumes, we're meaning tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and often millions.

This allows manufacturers to produce items efficiently, consistently, and of course at a lower cost per unit.

Now there are two types of large-scale production, often they get confused or blurred, mass production and continuous production.

They are in fact different.

And that's what we're gonna be looking at in this learning cycle.

First, check for understanding.

What is meant by large-scale production? Is it a, making one unique product by hand, b, producing very high-volumes using automated machinery, is it c, creating small batches of customized items, or is it d, designing products with many variations to increase flexibility? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is of course b, producing high volumes using automated machinery.

So let's a look at mass production.

This is when large quantities of identical products are made using machinery and assembly line techniques.

Each worker or machine performs a specialized task.

And good examples of these are the automotive and aerospace industry but also electronics and appliances.

If we take the example of the automotive industry, when the vehicles are being manufactured, most workers have a defined set time to complete their tasks no matter where they are on the production line.

They are also assisted using robots, so automation.

Mass production affects the design of products by making them standardized.

There isn't much variation in the size and parts.

Now obviously if you are making vehicles, yes, there is variation in what you can decide.

So you could decide that you want black leather seats rather than blue canvas seats, but of course you're still making the same vehicle.

Manufacture is mainly automated, with some human intervention.

Therefore, large quantities can be made in a shorter time.

And this efficiency of course lowers unit costs even further.

So let's look at our analogy again.

And you can now see we are spreading that 100 pound imaginary production cost over even more units, which means of course those unit costs reduce even further.

Now let's summarize, just like we did in the first learning cycle.

So number of workers, some.

We are automated now.

We are using robots to assist us in the manufacturing.

The skill net level needs to be lower.

The workers are usually doing repetitive tasks that often take only a few seconds to complete.

Production speed is very fast because we are using production lines.

Production flexibility is low.

If we started making a vehicle or for example a smartphone, we can't really change what we're doing.

And of course unit cost is spread over more units, so that is also low.

And a nice example for this, I've already used these as examples, is cars.

They are a great example of mass production and it's made in large numbers with standardized parts usually on an assembly line.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of these is an example of mass production? Is it a, tailored wedding dress, b, limited edition doll, c, smartphone, or d, prototype? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you complete it.

It is of course a smartphone.

They can be mass produced.

Well done.

Now continuous production is when a product is made without an interruption, often 24/7, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Now because of that, this is usually a fully automated process.

It's used for very high demand products where efficiency is critical.

Examples of these include drinks cans, paper pulp, smelting metals, and also things like chemicals.

Once again, let's have a look at our analogy.

Now, continuous production is fully automated and runs constantly.

As a result, it produces extremely large quantities of standardized products with little or no variation in size and appearance.

There is very little human intervention other than to maintain the machinery.

Often, if you go to a factory where continuous products are being made, you will see very few workers on what they call the kind of shop floor, the place where they manufacture the products.

Now, continuous production has a very low unit cost due to its maximum efficiency and economies of scale.

So once again, we have our production cost of a hundred pounds, and you can see that our unit cost has reduced dramatically.

And that would run on to many slide.

So we've just basically say it's gonna be continued.

Let's summarize it again.

Number of workers is few, people maintaining the machinery that is actually making our products.

Skill level, again, we could say it's very low in terms of manufacturing.

You might have a few people maintaining the machines, but the rest of the workers there are just making sure everything is working.

Production speed is very fast.

I recently went to a fizzy drinks factory, and the speed at which the bottles of fizzy drink were passing me on the production line in their continuous production factory, you couldn't focus on them.

They were going past so quickly.

They were making that many every single second.

Now production flexibility is also very low.

If you're making drinks cans, that's all you can make.

Very high setup costs for these manufacturing facilities.

And that of course means that the unit costs are very low because you are making so many products.

And of course a great example of this is a drinks can.

Continuous production is standardized.

The design allow automated machines to produce large quantities and numbers of them very efficiently.

Quick check for understanding.

Which of the following is an example of a product made using continuous production? Is it a, a handmade wooden chair, b, Christmas card, c airplane, or D, steel sheets? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've completed it.

It is of course d, steel sheets.

Well done.

Now let's once again have a look at our benefits and limitations.

It's great to be able to compare these two scales of production.

So first of all, mass production.

Well, the benefits, we've got a lower unit cost, we've got consistent quality because we're bringing once again in more standardization but also automation, and we have a faster production.

The limitations, we are less flexible.

We're making vehicles, we've gotta carry on making vehicles.

We have a very high setup cost, high cost of machinery, often running into the millions of pounds to be able to set up a facility like this.

And also, we only have standard designs only.

Continuous production, we've got an extremely low unit cost, often running into the pennies.

We've got maximum efficiency.

We are fully automated.

We are using machines to manufacture everything, which of course means that we have minimal labor costs.

The limitations of this, we are inflexible in our design.

We can't stop making aluminum cans.

It would be very expensive for us to try and do that.

It's a very high setup cost because of the automation.

And obviously if something happens to the machinery, maintenance, everything stops, we start losing money and our output drops.

Check for understanding.

Which is a limitation shared by both mass and continuous production? A, requires large initial investment in machinery, b, can make unique custom products easily, c, it's labor-intensive, or d, only small quantities can be made.

Pause the video now, have a go at this, and come back to me when you've completed it.

It is of course a, it requires large initial investment in machinery, millions of pounds.

Economies of scale are very significant in large-scale production.

As more products are made, the fixed costs of machinery, equipment, buildings are spread over thousands or millions of units.

And this dramatically reduces the unit cost.

Both mass and continuous production benefit greatly from economies of scale.

Another check for understanding.

Why does continuous production have a very low unit cost? Is it a, products are highly customized, b, machines run constantly, spreading costs over many items, is it c, skilled labor is needed for each unit, or d, only one product is made at a time? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've done it.

It is of course b, machines run constantly, spreading costs over many, many items. Now on to Task B.

The first thing I want you to do is define continuous production and give an example.

I then want you to compare mass production with continuous production.

And then finally, explain how economies of scale reduce unit cost in large-scale production.

Pause the video now, have a go at this task, come back to me when you have completed it.

Let's have a look at some sample answers.

So first I asked you to define continuous production and give an example.

Well, continuous production is when products are made without interruption using fully automated processes.

An example is steel production in a factory.

I then wanted you to compare mass production with continuous production.

Well, mass production produces large quantities of identical products using semi-automated assembly lines.

Continuous production runs fully automated processes without stopping, producing very large quantities.

Both methods reduce unit cost and increase efficiency.

The final ask was explain how economies of scale reduce unit costs in large-scale production.

Well, economies of scale occur because the fixed costs of machinery and buildings are spread across many thousands or possibly millions of products.

As the more units are produced, the cost per item decreases, making mass production and continuous production cheaper per unit than batch and one-off production.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Well done, you've been absolutely fantastic.

Let's have a quick summary.

One-off production makes a single unique product.

Batch production makes sets of identical items. Mass production produces large quantities efficiently.

Continuous production runs fully automated, possibly 24/7 without stopping.

Economies of scale lower unit cost as production increases.

Well done today.

I look forward to seeing you all next time.

Goodbye.