Manufacturing Process (Overview) Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale.

The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such finished goods may be used for manufacturing other, more complex products, such as aircraft, household appliances or automobiles, or sold to wholesalers, who in turn sell them to retailers, who then sell them to end users the "consumers".

Fig. Manufacturing Cycle Manufacturing of products is an important activity historically, technologically, and economically. The products that are available to us or alternatively, the benefits of civilization which we enjoy today, are necessarily due to the improvement in their quality.

This improvement is possible with proper design, which ta es into consideration the functional requirement as well as its manufacturing aspects. This ma es a better product available at an economical cost. !ll this is possible with the availability and adoption of a variety of new techniques and process replacement and improvement of prevailing processes or techni"ues that include better and more compact design, efficient and appropriate methods of production, mechanization, automation and numerical control and optimal output. #resently there have been increasing demands on the performance of the product by way of desirable characteristics such as resistance to elevated temperatures, higher operating speeds and ability to carry extra loads . ! variety of raw materials and its associated processing would be re"uired for this purpose. Just li e technology that can be defined as the application of science to provide society and its members with those items! things! products that are desired", so is the manufacturing processes. The manufacturing process forms a vital ingredient for various products such as plant and machinery that is needed in various disciplines of engineering. ! detailed nowledge of the manufacturing processes is thus essential for every engineer. $e will be able to appreciate the process capabilities, advantages and limitations. This in turn would help him in the proper design of the product as per demand in the mar et. %urther, he would be able to assess the feasibility of manufacturing the re"uisite design, select the appropriate process requiring minimum manufacturing cost and of the desired quality from the different! alternative techniques or processes available. Definition of Manufacturing Manufacturing can be defined in two ways in the modern context i.e. technological and economic. Technologically, manufacturing is the application of physical and chemical processes for changing the geometry, characteristics and! or appearance of a given input material to produce parts or products , the assembly involving many parts to ma e products is also included in manufacturing.

The processes to accomplish manufacturing involve a combination of machines! tools, man power, power! energy and methods as represented in %ig.

#conomically, manufacturing means the transformation of materials into items! goods of greater value by way of one or more processing and! or assembly operations as shown in %ig. The meaning of greater value is that manufacturing adds value to the material by altering its shape or characteristics . $he material has been made more valuable by virtue of the manufacturing operations performed on it.

Manufacturing Industries and Products Manufacturing is an important activity, but it is performed by various enterprises& organizations as a commercial activity for the purpose of financial gains and customer satisfaction. %ndustry means enterprises and organizations that are able to produce or supply goods& products and services. The final products made by manufacturing industries are termed as manufactured products. These can be divided into &onsumer 'roducts and &apital goods. Manufacturing Processes %or every engineer a through nowledge of the manufacturing processes is essential. This would help him to appreciate the advantages, limitations and capabilities of the process.

'ith such nowledge, he would be able to assess the feasibility of manufacturing a particular product from the designs. %urther, he would be able to select proper processes, which would re"uire the lowest manufacturing cost and would manufacture the product of re"uisite "uality. Classification of Manufacturing Processes Manufacturing processes can be classified in six groups. They are( ). 'rimary (haping or )orming 'rocesses #rimary shaping or forming is manufacturing of a solid body from a molten or gaseous state or from an amorphous material. Some of the important primary shaping processes is( * &asting* 'owder Metallurgy* 'lastic technology. +. +eforming 'rocesses ,eforming processes ma e use of suitable stresses li e compression, tension, shear or combined stresses to cause plastic deformation of the materials to produce re"uired shapes without changing its mass or material composition. Some of the forming processes are( * )orging* #xtrusion* ,olling* (heet metal wor ing* etc. -. Machining/Removing Processes The principle used in all machining processes is to generate the surface re"uired by providing suitable relative motions between the wor piece and the tool. Some of the machining processes are( * $urning* +rilling Milling* -rinding* (haping* etc. .. Joining processes /n this process one or more pieces of metal parts are united together to ma e sub*assembly or final product. Some of the important joining processes are( * 'ressure welding* +iffusion welding* brazing* ,esistance welding* soldering* etc. 0. Surface Finishing Processes These processes are utilized to provide intended surface finish on the metal surface of a job. Some of the important surface finishing processes are( * 'lastic coating* Metallic coating* #lectroplating* etc . 1. Material Properties Modification Processes /n this type of process, material properties of a wor piece is changed in order to achieve desired characteristics without changing the shape. Some of the processes are( * .eat and surface treatment* /nnealing* (tress relieving .

!pes of Production S!stems Types of production and choice of production type dictates the machine re"uirements, organizational system and to a large extent, layout, planning and inventory sub*systems. There are three main types of production, namely, job, batch and flow or process production. Plant "a!out #lant layout is the arrangement of the physical element of facilities 2or machines& e"uipment3 which ma e the product or service. Thus facilities layout is the overall arrangement of machines, men, material handling, service facilities, and passage re"uired to facilitate efficient operation of production system. The primary goal of plant layout is to maximize profit by the arrangement of all plant facilities to the best advantage of the 4manufacturing equation5 men, material, machines, and money in fulfilling this goal. The pattern by which departments and facilities within departments are arranged may be viewed either in terms of wor flow or the function of the productive system. !ccording to wor flow pattern, four basic types are used in manufacturing operations. These are( * %ixed position layout * #roduct or line layout * #rocess or functional layout * 6roup layout.