Describe manufacturing types
As the world continues to shift to a technology-based society, the manufacturing industry is using a mixture of artificial intelligence machine learning and big data to become more connected. By taking advantage of the latest technology available, manufacturers can create smarter processes and operations, such as Internet of things (IoT) and mixed reality, to optimize people, processes, and equipment.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management allows you to realize the new efficiencies, innovations, and growth from digital transformation. You can create best-fitting manufacturing processes to address your production requirements with a single solution.
With Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, you can use:
Discrete manufacturing
Lean manufacturing
Process manufacturing
Unified (mixed-mode) manufacturing
Let us briefly define the various kinds of manufacturing.
Discrete manufacturing
Discrete manufacturing is the production of distinct items. Automobiles, furniture, toys, smartphones, and airplanes are examples of discrete manufacturing products. Discrete manufacturers use a bill of materials (BOM) and production follows a route, such as an assembly line.
Characteristics of discrete manufacturing include the following:
Order-based production or production in individual production orders
Varying sequence of work centers and complex routings
Semi-finished products that are often put into interim storage
Components that are released based on the scheduling of the production order
Completion confirmation, or backflush, for individual operations or orders
Raw materials measured in pieces
A single finished good as output
Waste accounted for on raw material lines only
Lean manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is a method that focuses on minimizing waste within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity. Discrete manufacturing is often associated with lean manufacturing.
Characteristics of lean manufacturing include:
Minimizes waste without sacrificing productivity.
Takes into consideration waste created through overburdening and waste created through unevenness in workloads.
Emphasizes what adds value and reduces everything that does not add value.
Derived from the Toyota Production System.
Known for its focus on the original Toyota seven wastes.
Process manufacturing
Process manufacturing is common in the food, beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods, and biotechnology industries. In process manufacturing, the relevant factors are ingredients, formulas, and bulk materials rather than parts, bills of materials, and individual units.
Organizations that want to automate their production processes for products manufactured in a batch, semi-continuous, or continuous processing environment can use process manufacturing.
Characteristics of process manufacturing include:
Uses a formula or recipe.
Blends products together in a batch.
Builds or produces a product that cannot be taken apart or be reversed.
Involves variable ingredients.
Has product outputs such as coproducts and by-products.
Make products in bulk quantities, such as paints, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and food products.
Raw material ingredients in formulas often measured by weight or volume instead of pieces.
Unified (mixed-mode) manufacturing
Distinct types of products require different manufacturing processes. Therefore, various products and production topologies require the application of different order types.
Supply Chain Management enables the end-to-end process of producing one finished product, whatever the manufacturing process type.
The production of products, a process that is also known as the production lifecycle, follows specific steps to complete the manufacture of an item. The lifecycle begins with creating the production order in a discrete process, batch order in a process, or Kanban in a lean manufacturing environment.
Whether you use a discrete, lean, process, or unified manufacturing model for production, Supply Chain Management gives you the power to create and maintain a best-fit manufacturing process.