Revisiting the basics of manufacturing
Manufacturing, in general, can be classified as discrete manufacturing or process manufacturing. While discrete manufacturing deals with creating countable or distinct products, such as cars or shoes, process manufacturing usually follows a recipe combining multiple raw materials to create different finished goods. Examples of this include detergent, face cream, or steel. A keen understanding of various manufacturing processes is key to appreciating the importance of different control systems used for each of them. Figure 5.1 visualizes the multiple subdivisions of the kinds of manufacturing arranged in decreasing order of production volume and increasing order of production variety.
Figure 5.1 – Manufacturing types
- Repetitive manufacturing: In repetitive manufacturing, the production line is tuned for manufacturing a single Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) with no or minimum variations. A one-to-one mapping...
