If you’re thinking about creating your own product, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed right from the start. With so many decisions to make, figuring out where to begin isn’t easy. Yet for all the products that move through our economy every day, each one starts the same way: It has to be physically made.
Today, manufacturing looks very different from even a few years ago. Society is going through its fourth industrial revolution, marked by automation, smart technologies, and cloud computing. “Smart factories” now rely on sensors, AI, and decentralized decision-making to help increase production.
In this article, we’ll go over some key definitions, industry processes, manufacturing types, and roles to give an overview of a very important part of today’s modern supply chain.
What Is Manufacturing?
Let’s begin with a simple definition of manufacturing. Manufacturing is the process of transforming raw materials, parts, or components into a finished product.
For example, take a spiral-bound planner. The planner (the finished product) requires the following parts:
Printed paper for the planner covers
Carboard pieces
Interior pages
Spiral
Bookmarks
All of these parts are manufactured separately and assembled later to form them into the final product: a planner.
Manufacturing Industries
There are many types of manufacturing industries, which can be found in an exhaustive list by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the categories include food manufacturing, textile mills, computer and electronics manufacturing, and primary metal manufacturing. Each industry has its own rules and standards, but for the purpose of this article, we’ll dive into high-level overviews of manufacturing processes, methods, roles, and why they matter.
Processes/Types
There are several types of overarching process flows used by manufacturers. As you’ll see in the next section, products are made through a variety of methods. Each method relies on a few different manufacturing processes, chosen based on the product's complexity, quantity needed, and the materials used.
Related Reading: What is Lead Time and How Does It Affect Retail?
What Is Discrete Manufacturing?
When you think of manufacturing processes, the first image that comes to mind is likely an assembly line, popularized by the Ford Motor Company in the early 1910s. This is discrete manufacturing: a process that helps create distinct, countable items, each with its own identifier. This is commonly used to produce automobiles, smartphones, and furniture.
What Is Process Manufacturing?
Process manufacturing, on the other hand, uses recipes or formulas to transform raw materials through chemical or physical changes.
Process manufacturing can be split into two categories:
Continuous Manufacturing
This type of process manufacturing is used for oil refining, paper production, and gas processes. It operates 24/7 without breaks to avoid shortages or process interruptions and to meet market demand.
Batch Manufacturing
Also commonly called batch processing, this manufacturing method is used for medicine, book publishing, and food and beverage production, batch manufacturing produces goods in large groups, or “lots,” according to demand or product size.
What Is Repetitive Manufacturing?
Repetitive manufacturing relies on assembly lines, much like discrete manufacturing, mentioned above. However, repetitive manufacturing involves producing the same item repeatedly with minimal changeover time. It’s used for high-volume items like pens, tires, and even larger items like washing machines.
What Is Job Shop Manufacturing?
The most unique and customizable manufacturing method is job shop manufacturing. This method focuses on custom, small-batch jobs made with highly specific requirements. Contrary to the assembly line method used in discrete or repetitive manufacturing, job shop manufacturing uses separate work stations with interchangeable specific parts, to create items as small as detailed woodworking pieces or as large as aerospace parts for NASA.
What Is Mixed Mode Manufacturing?
This type of manufacturing is a hybrid approach, in which a facility uses both discrete and process methods on the same production line. Often used in the consumer product goods (CPG) industry, this type of method allows for flexibility and operational efficiency to meet customer demand. One example of this might be a beverage producer making seltzer. A large batch of a base recipe could be made and then moved into discrete production to add different flavorings, such as tangerine and berry.
Manufacturing Methods Explained
There are many different types of manufacturing methods, each specific to the type of final product.
Manufacturing Method | Definition | Example Products |
Shaping | This method reshapes raw materials, typically sheet metal, through mechanical force and heat without adding or removing material. | An insulated travel mug, or HVAC ducts |
Casting and Molding | These techniques involve pouring or injecting molten material (like metal or plastic) into a mold to create complex shapes. Injection molding is used for high-precision plastic parts, while compression molding uses pressure to create high-strength components. | Bottle caps andcar dashboards |
Forming | Similar to shaping, this includes methods like extrusion, where heated material is pushed through a shaped die to create long, consistent cross-sections. It also includes thermoforming, which molds heated plastic sheets into specific lightweight shapes for packaging or consumer goods. | Metal pipes and clamshell packaging |
Machining / Subtractive Manufacturing | Often described as "sculpting," this process involves cutting away material from a solid block of metal or plastic using tools like lathes, drills, and mills. It is used to achieve high precision and tight tolerances for complex parts and prototypes. Think of this as traditional fine art sculpture with clay, but with modern materials. | Aircraftcomponents or gears |
Additive Manufacturing | Commonly known as 3D printing, this method builds objects layer-by-layer based on a computer-aided design (CAD) model. It is ideal for rapid prototyping and creating intricately shaped parts without the need to retool expensive machinery. | Medical prototypes or fidgets |
Chemical Manufacturing | This method uses recipes or formulas to convert raw materials via chemical and physical changes. It requires carefully controlled conditions to ensure consistent quality and safety, often starting in lab-like settings before being scaled up to mass production in specialized plants. | Fertilizers or soaps |
Joining and Assembly | This method involves combining separate components to build a final product, often on an assembly line. A key technique is welding, which fuses pieces of metal or thermoplastics together to create strong, permanent bonds. | Smartphones or construction beams |
Specialized Manufacturing andFinishing Processes | This includes project-based manufacturing for large, one-of-a-kind items, as well as forging,which applies intense pressure to create exceptionally tough metal parts. | Satellites or hand tools |
Food Manufacturing | A type of process manufacturing that uses recipes and formulas to convert ingredients into finished goods via chemical or physical changes. It typically utilizes batch processing for food items or continuous manufacturing for liquids and powders. | Hummus or beer |
Demand Driven Workflows and Strategic Approaches to Order Fulfillment
Once a company has decided on how a product is made (the manufacturing method), it’s important to consider when the product is made. There are three distinct workflows that manufacturers utilize when creating a product, each with its own benefits.
Related Reading: What is a Purchase Order?
Make to Order
This is the most direct manufacturing flow for order fulfillment. The manufacturer creates a product only when an order for it is received. This is most common in highly specialized or customized goods, as excess inventory is not viable due to size or length of production time.
Make to Stock
Make to Stock manufacturing is the most common workflow used. Products are based on demand forecasts and then stored as inventory. This allows manufacturers to have a reliable stock for quick order fulfillment, but risks surplus stock and waste if demand forecasts are incorrect.
Make to Assemble or Assemble to Order
This hybrid approach allows manufacturers to reliably make basic components or parts based on forecasts, but the final product isn’t fully assembled until an order arrives. This lets the manufacturer have the benefits of customization and quicker assembly.
Major Manufacturing Roles
As you can imagine, it requires a complex interplay of roles and people to ensure goods are produced. In this section, we’ve outlined some of the key players needed to create products that are made properly, when they’re needed.
Strategic and Executive Leadership
This group of roles deals with high-level operations decision-makers, who primarily focus on strategy and execution.
C-Suite
The Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Information Officer are common roles in manufacturing. These people oversee organizational direction, financial health, and information technology infrastructure, so that the business stays healthy and competitive in a globalized market.
Controllers
Controllers manage detailed financial reporting, cost control, accounting, and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). They’re in charge of making sure all company finances are healthy and that revenue is being generated.
Asset Managers
Asset managers help oversee the full lifecycle of production equipment, ensuring that all equipment is safe, reliable, easily fixable, and prevents both product waste and time waste.
The Makers (Product Design and Engineers)
These roles help ensure the actual product works and meets all specifications.
Product Designers
Product designers turn an idea into reality by conceptualizing, prototyping, and creating initial products, so a blueprint can be made for mass production.
Production Engineers
Product engineers take the prototype made by product designers and turn it into a manufacturable product by ensuring the most cost-effective methods are used. They figure out what machines need to be used and how to lay out the factory floor.
Related Reading: Understanding Product Testing
Supply and Demand Planning
These roles focus on how to actually move the product out the door, now that it’s made.
Supply Chain Managers
These roles work with logistics companies, suppliers, and retailers to ensure products move efficiently out the door to customers. They focus on supply and demand.
Procurement and Sourcing Teams
This team focuses on sourcing raw materials and negotiating with suppliers to ensure consistency in cost, quality, and reliability. They focus on collaborative relationships to minimize supply chain interruptions.
Related Reading: Sourcing in the CPG Industry
Operations and Production Floor
In the early days of manufacturing, production staff meant physical labor. Now, as the industry evolves, it can mean oversight of machinery.
Floor Managers
These managers act as the primary coordinators, monitoring workflow and delegating tasks to ensure the production line meets its deadlines.
Human Operators
This role works in tandem with production machines to ensure the product is made in good condition and as specified.
Tech and Maintenance
These employees ensure that all production equipment is working, in good condition, and easily repairable.
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