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Industrial Technology

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Industry study

Mass production and automation

This unit of work addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes:

A student:

H1.2 identifies appropriate equipment, production and manufacturing techniques and describes the impact of new and developing technologies in industry.

Source: Board of Studies NSW (1999) Stage 6 syllabus, industrial technology, preliminary and HSC courses, Board of Studies, Sydney.

Mass production and automation are very different concepts in industry.

1. Automation

Automation is the process in industry where various production operations are converted from a manual process, to an automated or mechanised process. Let's assume that a person is operating a metal lathe. The person collects the stock, already cut to size, from a bin. He, or she, places it in the lathe chuck, and moves the various hand-wheels on the machine to create a component; a bolt could be such an item. Once finished the person commences the process again to make another item. This would be a manual process. If this process were automated, a person would place long lengths of bar into the feed mechanism of an automatic lathe. The lathe mechanisms feed the material into the chuck, turn the piece to the correct shape and size, and cut it off the bar before commencing another item. This is an example of an automated machine in a manufacturing process.

It is also possible to automate assembly processes. In this case, several steps in the assembly of the components of an item are carried out automatically. For example, the components of a food container: top, bottom and body, may be formed and assembled into a finished container through the use of mechanised machine processes, instead of being done manually.

Modern automated processes are mostly controlled by computer programs which, through the action of sensors and actuators, monitor progress and control the sequences of events until the process is complete. Decisions made by the computer ensure that the process is completed accurately and quickly.

Through automation, workers are freed from unpleasant, hazardous, repetitive and tedious work. However, automation means that fewer people are required to complete the same amount of work. Also, higher skill levels are required to setup and operate automated machines and this results in the displacement from the workplace of semiskilled and unskilled workers. Displaced workers need to be retrained if they are to retain a place in the workforce. Training in computing, electronics and maintenance systems is now required to replace training in machine skills.

Most Australian industries are now highly automated. This has resulted in many thousands of workers being made redundant or retrained to enter new industries. Examples of industries that have applied automation include the iron and steel industry, manufacturing industries, the automobile industry, service industries, banks and communications.

For further information you could search under “Automation” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/

Activity 1

From your research into automation answer the following:

1. What are some features of an automated system?
2. List five sociological effects of automation.
3. List some of the industries that have applied automation systems.

Answers

Automation differs distinctly from mass production, as the following activity will show.

2. Mass production

Mass production is the large-scale production of goods in factories.

Originally, very small numbers of products were made by craftsmen in home workshops. But, the increasing demand for consumer goods following the industrial revolution, meant that larger numbers of products needed to be manufactured in a more efficient way.

To facilitate the mass production process, organisation of the following factors is necessary.

• A division of labour, where the manufacturing process is broken down into small specialised tasks that each worker carries out over and over again.
• The standardisation of parts across a number of products so that large numbers can be made cheaply and efficiently.
• The development of machinery to perform standardised tasks and produce components.
• The production process needs to be designed to efficiently integrate the machine processes and human tasks.

The best known example of a mass production process was the assembly line developed by Henry Ford to manufacture the Model T Ford in 1913.

Activity 2

Answer the following questions from the article at:
http://ks.essortment.com/movingassembly_rfjh.htm

1. How many hours did it take to produce a complete new car using the assembly line process?
2. Assembly line production was not new in 1903. What was Henry Ford’s innovation that sped up production even more?

Answers

Mass production has many advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages include:

• efficiency of production: less time is taken to produce goods
• ‘economies of scale’: cheaper to make products in large quantities
• workers only need to be trained in one or two tasks.

Disadvantages include:

• boredom for the workers
• occupational overuse syndrome (repetitive strain injury)
• low job satisfaction for workers
• large stock piles of finished goods waiting to be sold
• difficult to change the product’s design quickly to respond to changing styles and consumer demand.

These disadvantages have led to a change in direction for manufacturers to try and be more responsive to changes in the marketplace.

The development of ‘just in time’ (JIT) manufacturing has evolved as an appropriate production technique to address the problems of excess stock and lack of responsiveness by manufacturers, to trends in the marketplace.

Activity 3

Refer to the editorial by Dr David Anderson PE CMC at:
http://buildtoorderconsulting.com/Mass%20Production.htm

1. What prevented Ford from responding quickly to emerging market trends?
   
   
2. How does JIT differ from producing large quantities of goods that are then stored until sold?
   Refer to the article at:
   http://www.inventorysolutions.org/def_jit.htm
   
   
3. Identify the six purposes of JIT manufacturing.
   
   
4. List the seven types of waste that JIT manufacturing tries to eliminate.

Answer