Question

Which manufacturing strategy has the shortest / fastest lead time from the customer’s perspective?

Which manufacturing strategy(s) is most aligned with batch manufacturing?

Answer 1

Make-to-Stock is the manufcaturing strategy in which there is shortest lead time from customer's perspective. This include the firms that provide service to customers from finished/ready goods inventory. Example:- Electronics such as TV, Refrigerator, Clothing,etc. In this manufacturing the production & the inventory or stock matches the demand of the product. This requires accurate forecast to be done so that demand can be predicted & accordingly existing stock can be maintained & how much needs to be there in production. Since the product is always in inventory/stock, this can delivered as soon as order is recieved from the customer, in contrast to other strategies wherein the product is not ready to be delivered as soon as order is recieved.

Batch Production:- This is a type of production wherein the product is created in stages over a series of batches in various workstations. In this basically the goods are produced in batches & not in a continous stream. I suppose, Assemble-to-order startegy i smost aligned with batch production. In batch production, modules/items can be created in batches & when & as required by customer, these can be assembled quickly & can be delivered to customers. For example:- PC's, different motherborads along with different size of hard disk & graphics can be produced in batches & when a requirement has been recieved from customer, accordingly components can be assembled & can be delivered to customer as per their need/requirement.