Question

When (i.e., in what business environment) would it be better to make use of small batch manufacturing rather than mass production? Give an Example.

Answer 1

Batch production is a technique which makes use of a series of steps to make multiple units one unit at a time. On the other hand, mass production is one where continuous production of units happens and there a number of steps in the manufacturing process, all of which are going on concurrently i.e. at any given time all steps are operational.

An example of batch production would be newspapers. The steps are carried out one by one ultimately leading to printing of a newspaper and the same steps are repeated again for another unit.

An example of mass production would be cars. Usually, they are manufactured in assembly lines where manufacturing is done in every bay in the line and cars are being continuously produced.

Batch production is particularly useful when the batches are unique and production equipment can be used to make another batch of products as well. Mass production would be useful when equipments can be for specialized tasks and to achieve larger scale of production.