Job production
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Job production, sometimes called jobbing or one-off production, involves producing custom work, such as a one-off product for a specific customer or a small batch of work in quantities usually less than those of mass-market products. Job production consists of an operator or group of operators to work on a single job and complete it before proceeding to the next similar or different job.[1] Together with batch production and mass production (flow production) it is one of the three main production methods.[2][3]
Job production can be classical craft production by small firms (making railings for a specific house, building/repairing a computer for a specific customer, making flower arrangements for a specific wedding etc.), but large firms use job production, too, and the products of job production are often interchangeable, such as machined parts made by a job shop. Examples include:
- Designing and implementing an advertising campaign
- Auditing the accounts of a large public limited company
- Building a new factory
- Installing machinery in a factory
- Machining a batch of parts per a CAD drawing supplied by a customer
- Building the Golden Gate bridge
Job production is, in essence, manufacturing on a contract basis, and thus it forms a subset of the larger field of
Benefits and disadvantages
Key benefits of job production include:
- can provide emergency parts or services, such as quickly making a machine part that would take a long time to acquire otherwise
- can provide parts or services for machinery or systems that are otherwise not available, as when the original supplier no longer supports the product or goes out of business (orphaned)
- work is generally of a high quality
- a high level of customization is possible to meet the customer's exact requirements
- significant flexibility is possible, especially when compared to mass production
- workers can be easily motivated due to the skilled nature of the work they are performing
Disadvantages include:
- higher cost of production
- re-engineering: sometimes engineering drawings or an engineering assessment, including calculations or specifications, needs to be made before the work can be done
- requires the use of specialist labor (compared with the repetitive, low-skilled jobs in mass production)
- slow compared to other methods (batch production and mass production)
Essential features
There are a number of features that should be implemented in a job production environment, they include:
- Clear definitions of objectives should be set.
- Clearly outlined decision making process.
- Clear list of specifications should be set.
See also
- Instant manufacturing
- Just In Time
- Lean manufacturing
- Manufacturing
- Piece work
- Outline of industrial organization
References
- ^ Production Process, Mechanical Engineering Community & Discussion, retrieved 2018-04-13.
- ^ Production Methods, BBC GCSE Bitesize, retrieved 2012-10-26.
- ^ One-off production, National Grid for Learning Cymru, retrieved: 2012-10-26.
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