FOUR TYPES OF PROCESS STRATEGIES

PROCESS REPETITIVE PRODUCT MASS

FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS CUSTOMIZATION
Low volume, High-volume, High-volume,
Modular
High variety low-variety high-variety
Long runs,
Small quantity, large Large quantity, small Large quantity, large
standardized product,
variety of products variety of products variety of products
from modules
Special equipment
General purpose Special purpose Rapid change over on
aids in use of
equipment equipment flexible equipment
assembly line
Flexible operators
Broadly skilled Modestly trained Operators less
trained for
operators employees broadly skilled
customization
Many instructions Reduced training and Custom orders
Few work orders and
because of change in number of job require many
job instructions
jobs instructions instructions
Raw material high Raw material low Raw material low
relative to product JIT techniques used relative to product relative to product
value value value
WIP driven down by
WIP high relative to WIP low relative to
JIT techniques used JIT, kanban, lean
output output
production

Units move slowly Movement measured Units move swiftly Goods move swiftly
thru plant in hours & days thru facility thru facility

Finished goods made

Finished goods made Finished goods made Finished goods made
to forecast, then
to order, not stored to frequent forecasts to order
stored
Scheduling complex Scheduling relatively
Scheduling
and concerned with Scheduling based on simple, concerns
sophisticated to
trade-off between building models from establishing sufficient
accommodate
inventory, capacity, a variety of forecasts rate of output to meet
customization
and customer service forecasts
Fixed costs Fixed costs high;
Fixed costs low, Fixed costs high,
dependent on variable costs must
variable costs high variable costs low
flexibility of facilities be low

Costing, done by job,

Because of high fixed
is estimated prior to High fixed costs and
Costs usually known costs, cost dependent
doing job but only dynamic variable
based on experience on utilization of
known after doing job costs
capacity