Production facilities are arranged as per the sequence of production operations from the first operations to the finished product. The items are made to flow through the sequence of operations through material handling devices such as conveyors, transfer devices, etc.
Continuous Production is characterised by
1. Dedicated plant and equipment with zero flexibility.
2. Material handling is fully automated.
3. Process follows a predetermined sequence of operations.
4. Component materials cannot be readily identified with final product.
5. Planning and scheduling is a routine action.
Advantages
Following are the advantages of Continuous Production:
1. Standardisation of product and process sequence.
2. Higher rate of production with reduced cycle time.
3. Higher capacity utilisation due to line balancing.
4. Manpower is not required for material handling as it is completely automatic. Person with limited skills can be used on the production line.
6. Unit cost is lower due to high volume of production.
Limitations
Following are the limitations of Continuous Production:
1. Flexibility to accommodate and process number of products does not exist.
2. Very high investment for setting flow lines.
3. Product differentiation is limited.
Objectives and functions of production planning and control
Production planning is an activity that is performed before the actual production process takes place. It involves determining the schedule of production, sequence of operations, economic batch quantities, and also the dispatching priorities for sequencing of jobs.
Production control is mainly involved in implementing production schedules and is the corollary to short-term production planning or scheduling. Production control includes initiating production, dispatching items, progressing and then finally reporting back to
production planning. In general terms, production planning means planning of the work to be done later and production control refers to working out or the implementation of the plan.
