Ideas for Cost-Reduction in Manufacturing

Reduce Labor Costs

• can be generated by lowering the dollars paid to factory workers or by making workers more efficient
• can obtain low cost labor by unskilled labor
• decrease labor costs is to improve the efficiency of experienced labor
• eliminate the wasted steps in the process
• reduce time required to produce average unit by providing specialized training that allows employees to work at a faster pace 

Reduce Material Costs

• to procure materials for less money
• find ways to use less material in building process
• purchase materials in large lots to drive down unit costs
• research and determine which one to purchase for production

Reduce Overhead Costs

• building, utility, supply, storage, handling, travel, supervisory and administrative cost all add to manufacturing costs
• set budgets for these support costs and review them on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis
• keep debt and interest expense as low as possible
• review and shop for the lowest employee benefit cost each year
• monitoring tooling and supply cost, keep them in a secure area to deter loss 

Invest in Capital 

• the way to save money is to spend money
• investing in equipment that makes the manufacturing process faster 
• able to lower the production cost in the long run
• machinery that uses less material can also lover costs

Mass Customization

Mass customization is a concept whereby the customer has much higher involvement in the manufacturing process, being able to specify the features of the product they want, for example, selecting the functional and aesthetic features of a cars. Essentially, this trend reflects a change in manufacturers' attitudes. They are now listening to what the market and the consumers are demanding and addressing these requirements.

Manufacturing has been predominately about producing as much of a certain product at lowest unit cost in order to create value for the manufacturer, better known as mass production. As a result, this production-centric approach has told the customer what they need, leaving very little scope for input from the consumer. In essence, mass customization is a response to consumers demand for far greater control over the features of products that they wish to buy.

Advantages
• Customers are often more pleased with the finished product they receive, as it’s to their specification.
• Your workforce is more fulfilled as they now partake in numerous tasks as opposed to one production line responsibility.
• Customised products are more attractive to consumers than uniform products.
• Companies can forge strong relationships with their customers. That loyalty leads to return business time and again.
• As nothing is produced until an order is received, there are huge savings to be made by eradicating inventories of unsold goods and raw materials.

Disadvantages
• Maintaining a high level and variety of stock can incur high warehousing costs. Large amounts of capital are also tied up in stock.
• Typically, as the products are custom made they have a higher cost.
• Offering mass customisation with mass production efficiency is very difficult to achieve.
• If you are coming from a mass production background it is extremely tough to change your organisational structure and culture.
• Substantial investment is needed in information technology to create close integration between all links of your organisation’s value chain and external suppliers and intermediaries.

Mass Production affect the price of consumer goods

Goods could be made for the broadest possible market. Anything that consumers needed or desired could be made in larger quantities and thus resulted in the most affordable price of any product for the consumer without the manufacturer having to sacrifice profits. Mass production techniques such as assembly line which have helped reduce production cost.

While mass production is now the norm for consumer goods, there remains a demand for handmade products at higher prices, which may or may not be of superior quality.
Other products that are handmade rather than mass-produce and fetch higher prices that are out of the average consumer budget which include designer gowns, jewelry and leather goods. They have machine-made, mass produced counterparts, and purists insist that it takes a trained eye to spot the difference.
The only thing that cannot be mass produced but is still demand by collectors would be artwork, such as painting and sculptures. While they can be reproduced and mass produced, there can be only one original. There is, for example, only one Mona Lisa, but knock-offs can be created by any talented artist adept at copying the masterpiece.

What did consumers want/prioritize in a product?

• Going Green
• is a very important to many consumers now
• furniture that made from reusable material, or "upcycled" from another piece
• Multi-functional 
• consumers that live in small urban homes and apartments seek for furniture that serve double or triple duty
• Integrated technology
• wanted their furniture to help them be functional
• can be simple as cord organizer on a dresser or a USB port in desk.

According to Franklin Furniture Institute Furniture Outreach Program which was prepare by Nicole Ponder, a professor of marketing, one of his survey did mentioned about features for which consumers will pay more.

•  24.2% of consumers willing to pay more if the furniture is high on quality.

The other features where consumers willingly to pay more is that

•  12.9% of consumers able to get exactly what they want,
•  13.1% able to find a furniture that is customized to fit their style and preferences, 
• 9.8% of consumers will pay more if the furniture is made with environmentally-friendly materials.

Types of industrial production

There are four main type of production which are:

•  one-off production 
• only one product is being made at a time
• every product are different
• may be made by hand or a combination of hand and machine methods

• batch production 
• small quantities of identical products are made
• may be also labor intensive, but jigs and templates are used to aid production
• machines can be easily changed to produce a batch of a different product

• mass production 
• hundreds of identical products are made
• involves the assembly of a number of sub-assemblies of individual components 
• parts may be bought from other companies
• usually some automation of tasks and enables a smaller number of workers to output more products

• continuous flow production
• thousands of identical products are made
• differences between mass production is that the production line is kept running 24/7 to maximize production and eliminate extra cost for starting and stopping the production process
• highly automated and few workers are required
  
  
  
  

Companies that did mass production

These are some of the companies that their products are being mass produce.

Glovics Technology(Hk)Co., Ltd
Glovics technology (HK) Co., Ltd is subordinated to Glovics Technology (Korea) Which was established in the year of 2001 as a manufacturer of Printed Circuit Boards. Glovics has established itself as not only a manufacturer of large volume of PCBs, but also as a manufacturer of world competitive, high tolerance, high quality, small to medium volume production quantities. We specialize in manufacturing multilayer, double sided (2-16 layers) and single-sided printed circuit boards. Our monthly output is 30, 000 square meter. We handle surface finishing by OSP, HAL, hot air leveling, gold and nickel plating, immersion gold, Entek and outline by CNC drilling, CNC routing, punching, V-cut.
· Business Type :Manufacturing
· Year Established :2001
· Main Markets :Americas,Africa,Caribbean,America,East Europe,Euro
· Main Products :Sample And Mass Production are provided, Rapid Delivery And Services To All Customers., PCB, FPC Board
· Country/Region :China


Talent Link Limited
Talent Link Limited was established in 1996. They are specialize in development and production of variety precision plastic injection mold and plastic injection.
In 2003, we set up the Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling Department in order to shorten product development time and introduce products into the market with speed and precision.
Talent Link has implemented International quality system, ISO 9001:2000 in 2004 to ensure high quality management. Their products are widely used in Automobile part, Medical device, Telecommunication product, Engineering part, Electrical Appliance, Household product, Toys etc. High quality, competitive priced, fast delivery and quality management make us one of the leading manufacturers of plastic molds in Asia.
· Business Type :Manufacturer
· Year Established :1996
· Main Products :Plastic Injection Mold, Rapid Tooling,Rapid Prototype,Mass Production
· Country/Region :China

DRAN ENGINEERS PVT LTD
DRAN was established by Mr Anil Nagpure in 1982 in the shop space of merely 600 sq feet. It was started with one press and a cutting machine. Then gradually the machining processes were incorporated and became private limited in 1994. It had a sustained growth for about 12 years in the same place and moved to a bigger location for future expansion. The phase was of the transition from the machine shop to assembly shop. Now with a strong manufacturing base, it began to handle small assemblies’ right from the stage of machining. Then it gradually started concentrating on the manufacturing of Jig and Fixtures, Welding Fixtures, Special Purpose Machines, Head Rest Skinning Machines, Inspection Fixtures, CNC Machining Fixtures, Battery Lead Welding Machines and Conrod Bolt Tightening Machines. Dran started to expand in the close vicinity. In 2006, the automobile market started booming and this was real time to enter in the market. Dran decided to spread the hands wide for its expansion. Their major strength is highly experienced manpower and in-house manufacturing capacity of the complete machine tool.
Today Dran is equipped with all conventional machine tools with the blend of CNC and VMC machine with table size of 2000 mm. Dran also has latest inspection facilities such as CMM, Trimos and FARO arm.
· Business Type :Manufacturer, Trading Company, Distributor/Wholesa
· Location :MAHARASHTRA, India
· Main Markets :North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Sout
· Main Products :Jigs, Fixture,Welding Fixture,CNC Machining Fixtures, Inspection Fixtures,Special Purpose Machine, SPMs, Inspection Service,SPM, Mass Production,Engineering Designing Service, Designing Service,Engineering Services,Jigs & Fixture, Assembly Automation,Inspection,Tool Room,Engineering Design,Designing Sevices,Engineering Design Services, , Inspection Services
· Country/Region :India

Types of mass produce products

Automobile

The first automobile to be mass produced in the United States was the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, built by the American car manufacturer Ransome Eli Olds (1864-1950). Olds invented the basic concept of the assembly line and started the Detroit area automobile industry. But around 1913, American car manufacturer Henry Ford (1863-1947) was credited with inventing an improved assembly line by installing the first conveyor belt-based assembly line and was able to reduce production costs for cars by reducing the assembly time.

Food
Consistency has become a hallmark of fast food - in each chain, restaurants look alike and meals taste the same. The food itself is mass produced in a factory and then frozen. Restaurants store this frozen food in large, walk-in freezers. Cooks reheat it rather than making it from scratch. This is because the factory adds artificial and natural flavors to the food to make sure it all tastes the same. These flavors are manufactured separate factories. The equipment in the kitchen cooks all of the food for the same amount of time. For example, in some chains, a conveyor belt carries hamburger patties through a broiler. The broiler cooks the patties on both sides simultaneously, and the conveyor belt makes sure they're cooked for precisely the right amount of time. The employees in different restaurants follow the same instructions for cooking, dressing and packaging the food.

Furniture
The traditional mass produced furniture industry had several flaws. Manufacturers developed key lines, and simply increased production at specific times of the year. However, this would often result in bottlenecks in both the design and production processes. But this was often a leap of faith - reliant on sufficient orders being placed to make production cost-effective. Many factories had been built to produce large quantities of mass produced furniture, but just could not produce small quantities cost-effectively. So, when orders tailed off, production costs for each unit produced rose exponentially. This rigid approach to the manufacture of furniture led to many companies either relocating or outsourcing their production.

There are many other things that are being mass produce as the world is getting more and more advance, so only those above will be listed, for now...

MIFF 2017

 The furniture I like the most is Tsumineru which was designed by Yap Xin Yi. It is a combination of Chinese and Japanese style and the concept is dim sum. Although “The Able” which was designed by Pamela Yap Wei was also a good design but I would prefer Tsumineru more than “The Able” as Tsumineru has a unique design. Tsumineru’s uniqueness is the best among all 10 of the finalist but there is a reason why she cannot win. The main problem is that it is not ergonomic for people to use. The table and chair is not that proportionate as the chair is taller than the height of a normal chair. The furniture is also quite heavy, Just the lid of the furniture is already that heavy, if a person was going to move the whole furniture, it will be the test of strength for that person. It has lots of flaws in it, but it can always be improve till it is at its best. The uniqueness is there that is why it caught my eye the moment I lay my eyes upon it.

The furniture I did not like is “NVNA Tea Table” which was designed by Yang Wen Wei. The furniture is based on a boy and a girl and she used colours to represent it. The furniture is also very small, and I’m not sure if that a person will able to sit on it. Maybe it was meant for kids, but the height was not suitable as I do not think a kid will able to sit a chair that high. If it was meant for adult, the sitting area is too small. A normal person will be uncomfortable if they sit on it. It is a good design that she is able to get into the finalist, but I don’t really understand her concept and her design is common compare to Tsumineru, thus this is why I don’t really like this furniture that much,  

Why Mass Production?

Mass production involves producing goods in a large quantity. This strategy is undertaken in big companies under various circumstances. Though it is targeted at an individual long cost, it does not necessarily mean low quality.
The advantages of mass production is that lots of goods can be manufactured in a short amount of time and they are all standardized item. The result in a high accuracy level, though it requires continuous monitoring. Moreover, a lot of things are pre-decided, this results in division of labor, which is also one of the contributing factors for a high accuracy. And so, since each worker focuses on his individual job, a higher degree of a reliability is established. The rate of production was able to increase as the machines was powered by high level of automation. Thus, goods are manufactured efficiently and at an increased pace. A fast rate of production implies that the goods can be marketed faster and will leads to a steady profit in less time.

Whereas for the disadvantages of mass production is that if anything incorrect with the design, the entire production cycle will be affected. It also cannot be accurately verified until several have already been made, and so this results in terrific wastage of resources. As already mentioned, mass consumption is essential to determined the success rate of mass production and the company need to take into account the market demand of the product. However, there is no assurance or guarantee that the product will be hit among the consumers and if not, there will be no profit and all the produced goods will then be wasted. Though the overall expenditure per unit is reduced, the use of automated machine tools requires a lot of investment. There are other raw materials devised during the product design plan, which are very expensive and need to be purchased for a faster rate of production. Similarity is a trait of mass production. It is different if the product is in excess demand, but after a while, consumers may lose interest due to less variety. Even while producing the item, it is a bulk manufacturing strategy, therefore no variety is introduced, all the items are of the same quality, dimensions, etc. This could lead to limited consumption and wastage of capital.

Mass production needs a great deal of thought. It is always characterized by introducing some type of mechanization in order to retain quality and achieve ability and combat the disadvantages using effective means.

Refined Craft

"Decorated Like a Maven"  is a cover story in Calibre (December 2016) which is a lifestyle magazine for mature modern man. It was about how to decorate your living space like a professional.
"There is nothing 'raw and ready' here; instead this is about celebrating skill and time-intensive processes that cannot be mimicked in mass production." Products or furniture that undergo craft production always have its own uniqueness that are difficult to remake, thus higher its price. If you had something that no one or not many people had, that kind of feeling is indescribably. But from a designer's point of view, we can feel more accomplish and proud with the outcome as we made it with our own hands, whereas if we let the machines to do all the work, we will not feel that much accomplishment.