Case Studies Menu Bumper nut >> - Design for manufacturing - Innovative use of materials - Dev. of an established product - Competition - Spin-off consequences - Continuous development - Web links Air muscle >> - Source of product idea - World-wide recognition - Design development - Finance - Innovation Process - Low volume manufacture - Web links Mono bug clamp >> - Finding a product - Thorough design development - Design & manufacture integrated - Manufacturing process - Automation - Potential for further products - Web links Remarkable pencil >> - Environmentally friendly - Materials science - Refining manufacturing - Efficient production - Sales & marketing - Importance of aesthetics - Web links Ozone toothbrush >> - 3D models & drawing - Research to prove design - Thorough design development - Branding - Web links

Efficient Production

Volume manufacture of the pencils

As you can see from both this case study and the Mono Bug Clamp getting your manufacturing as efficient as possible is absolutely essential for a small company. This is especially so if you are producing non-luxury goods of low individual value, ie small, cheap items in high volumes. It is almost as bad to be able to produce many more pencils than you can sell as it is to be unable to supply enough products when you get a lot of orders. Getting it right is difficult - and relies on flexible manufacturing processes (being able to speed up or slow down) and accurate predictions of sales.

Being ready for increasing sales and making the pencils more profitably relies on being able to produce more, faster.

Why is faster production so important?

After a year of production in the Millennium Dome their first production machine was moved back to their factory, torn apart and revisions made throughout. As a result they went from being able to produce 1,200 pencils an hour to 2,000.

  Task 4 - Increasing production flow - and profits