Assembly Line Balancing Line Balancing and Work Cell Balancing is an effective tool to increase the output of the

Assembly line and Work Cell line to reduce manpower and cost. Assembly Line Balancing is nothing but the Simple Line Balancing is the calculation of assigning works to workstation alongside an Assembly Line and that operation will be optima in sense. Henry Ford who introduced the Assembly Line Balancing and in early times it was simple line balancing (LB) which has optimized the industrial importance, the effective difference between the optimal and sub-optimal operation can afford savings which will be million dollars every year.

Q.2. Describe the nature & importance of production management? Nature and Importance of Production Management Production management has become an important now a day that it is treated to be a separate, independent functional area of management. Production management has assumed its importance because of the following reason: 1. It is the foundation for earning profits by producing goods or services and selling them into the market. 2. It ensures that produced goods or services are of desired quality, in required quantity and according to timeschedules. 3. It facilitates optimum inventory level. 4. It ensures proper co-ordination and necessary control, which are required for adequate, time and costconscious production. 5. It ensures coping with the changes in demands in the market and maintains stability in the production department.

Nature and Scope of Operations Management

Operations management is often used along with production management in literature on the subject. It is therefore, useful to understand the nature of operations management .Operations management is understood as the process whereby resources or inputs are converted into more useful products .A second reading of the sentence reveals that, there is hardly any difference between the terms produ7ction management and operations management .But, there are a least two points of distinction between production management and operations

management .First, the term production management is more used for a system where tangible goods are produced .Whereas ,operations management is more frequently used where various inputs are transformed into tangible services .Viewed from this perspective, operations management will cover such services organization as banks ,airlines ,utilities ,pollution control agencies super bazaars, educational institutions ,libraries ,consultancy firm and police departments, in addition ,of course ,to manufacturing enterprises. The second distinction relates to the evolution of the subject. Operation management is the term that is used now a days .Production management precedes operations management in the historical growth of the subject The two distinctions not withstanding, the terms production management and operations management are used interchargeably . Scope of Production and Operation Management The scope of production and operations management is indeed vast .Commencing with the selection of location production management covers such activities as acquisition of land, constructing building ,procuring and installing machinery ,purchasing and storing raw material and converting them into saleable products. Added to the above are other related topics such as quality management ,maintenance management ,production planning and control, methods improvement and work simplification and other related area.

Financial Management Relationship with other Functional Areas

Financial Management Relationship with other Functional Areas The relationship between financial management and other functional areas can be defined as follows: 1. Financial Management and Production Department: The financial management and the production department are interrelated. The production department of any firm is concerned with the production cycle, skilled and unskilled labour, storage of finished goods, capacity utilisation, etc. and the cost of production assumes a substantial portion of the total cost. The production department has to take various decisions like replacing machinery, installation of safety devices, etc. and all the decisions have financial implications. 2. Financial Management and Material Department: The financial management and the material department are also interrelated. Material department covers the areas such as storage, maintenance and supply of materials and stores, procurement etc. The finance manager and material manager in a firm may come together while determining Economic Order Quantity, safety level, storing place requirement, stores personnel requirement, etc. The costs of all these aspects are to be evaluated so the finance manager may come forward to help the material manager.

3. Financial Management and Personnel Department: The personnel department is entrusted with the responsibility of recruitment, training and placement of the staff. This department is also concerned with the welfare of the employees and their families. This department works with finance manager to evaluate employees welfare, revision of their pay scale, incentive schemes, etc. 4. Financial Management and Marketing Department: The marketing department is concerned with the selling of goods and services to the customers. It is entrusted with framing marketing, selling, advertising and other related policies to achieve the sales target. It is also required to frame policies to maintain and increase the market share, to create a brand name etc. For all this finance is required, so the finance manager has to play an active role for interacting with the marketing department.

Recent Trends in Operations Management

NOVEMBER 20, 2010 by HAJARA SALEETH in MANAGEMENT with 2 COMMENTS

The operations management is the process of managing activities that produces goods and services in order to create value to the customer. With recent development the operations management has changed drastically and major changes in operations management are sumerized below:

Global Focus The geographical limitation of the market has expanded from focusing on local markets to focus on global markets. This has occurred due to the rapid development in communication, globalization and increased mobility of resources among countries. As a result countries focus on producing goods and services at a global scale rather than limiting themselves to geographical boundaries.

Just In Time Production In past production was carried out in a mass production method where there were batches of goods produced and sold at mass scale generating economies of scale. In the modern operations management era batch production focus has shifted towards Just In Time production where goods and services are produced upon the receipt of order with customizations. It has reduced the inventory cost drastically.

Supply Chain Partnerships In past the purchasing activities were carried out based on the lowest bid where organizations chose the supplier who provides the lowest bid for a particular order. This was more short term focused and quality and reliability was ignored. In modern days the low bid purchasing has shifted to supply chain partnerships where companies consider suppliers as a part of their value chain and build long lasting relationships with suppliers rather than focusing on short terms gains with low prices.

Product Development

In past the product life cycle was lengthy and when a product was introduced it stayed in the market for a long time. But with the rapid expansion of technology the product life cycle has become short where every product is replaced by a new product very fast. Due to this reason companies are not able to have lengthy product development processes and the forced to introduce rapid development of new product while encouraging innovation.

Customized Production

In past there was mass production where production was made in large scale with standardized production to gain economies of scale. But with increased flexibility and competition now companies are forced to customize their products based on customer requirement and techniques such as mass customization is used in doing so.

Employee Empowerment

In past employees were treated as just another input to the production process where they were treated like machines. There was specialization and workers concerns were ignored. With the development of Human Resource Management now firms focus on employee empowerment where they treat employees as resources that bring competitive edge to the firm. In this concept the workerc concerns are heard and organizations make arrangements for their welfare and mental/physical fitness.

Green Production In past the production was focused on obtaining resources at lowest possible cost and manufacturing at the lowest cost ignoring the damage made to the environment. Due to the initiatives by environment pressure groups companies are moving towards green production and green marketing where they carry out business activities without damaging the environment by not destroying natural resources, taking care of forests and wild life and so on.

Just in time production (JIT)

Just in time is a pull system of production, so actual orders provide a signal for when a product should be manufactured. Demand-pull enables a firm to produce only what is required, in the correct quantity and at the correct time. This means that stock levels of raw materials, components, work in progress and finished goods can be kept to a minimum. This requires a carefully planned scheduling and flow of resources through the production process. Modern manufacturing firms use sophisticated production scheduling software to plan production for each period of time, which includes ordering the correct stock. Information is exchanged with suppliers and customers through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) to help ensure that every detail is correct. Supplies are delivered right to the production line only when they are needed. For example, a car manufacturing plant might receive exactly the right number and type of tyres for one days production, and the supplier would be expected to deliver them to the correct loading bay on the production line within a very narrow time slot. Advantages of JIT Lower stock holding means a reduction in storage space which saves rent and insurance costs As stock is only obtained when it is needed, less working capital is tied up in stock There is less likelihood of stock perishing, becoming obsolete or out of date Avoids the build-up of unsold finished product that can occur with sudden changes in demand Less time is spent on checking and re-working the product of others as the emphasis is on getting the work right first time

Disadvantages of JIT There is little room for mistakes as minimal stock is kept for re-working faulty product

Production is very reliant on suppliers and if stock is not delivered on time, the whole production schedule can be delayed There is no spare finished product available to meet unexpected orders, because all product is made to meet actual orders however, JIT is a very responsive method of production

Lean systems
Many business processes and especially manufacturing are based on serial processes, where things are passed down a chain of processes, with value being added at each point. Within this system there is massive opportunity for inefficiency and waste, such as buffer stores, things getting lost, breakdowns, etc. A lean system has none of this fat. Going lean means removing all waste from the system. This has many implications, such as: Gaining a true understanding how things work so you can constantly improve, reduce waste and increase efficiency. Reducing buffer storage to the absolute minimum, which makes everything connected: if one point in the system breaks down, everyone is very rapidly also affected. Attention to bottlenecks, including when up-stream to suppliers and downstream to customers. Being able to rapidly change the system to work on different products. Having flexible, multi-skilled people who can perform such changes. Having systems and management that engenders such a capable and motivated workforce.

Thus parts and material should arrive at any point just as they are needed, and not before. This is known as Just In Time (JIT) and is the perfection that is sought, and can be far more closely attained than old systems which use large buffer stores to cover up inefficiencies in the system. JIT principles have been adopted in many other areas further afield from the original factory floor. For example Just In Time software compilers compile code just before it is needed. Toyota is consistently recognized as a leader and originator in this methodology (which helps to explain why many of the terms associated with it are Japanese).