Production Processes (AQA GCSE Business)

Park Designs Ltd (PDL) is a family business that makes high quality wooden furniture to order. The Park family owns all the shares.

As part of its commitment to training, PDL run an annual team building day for all 72 employees which is good for staff motivation. The factory is closed for the day and the staff go off-site for the day. Group challenges are run which help develop team skills and improve communication.

“I loved the team building day, we had great fun and it was better than being at work for the day. However I am not sure how useful it was to my job in the admin department?” Sue, Admin department.

The production manager will retire soon. Like him, many of the production staff have worked at PDL for many years. They enjoy their work and most stay until they retire. Consequently, there are several possible candidates to take over as production manager, but none have management experience.

Customer reviews say that the furniture is made to a very high standard, however, they also suggest that the administration staff do not always deliver good service. Complaints show that order processing is not always accurate. Recently, some customers have asked about the negative reviews when enquiring about possible purchases.

Park Designs Ltd (PDL) have built a good reputation for high quality traditionally styled furniture made to exact customer specification by skilled craftsmen. Each worker is responsible for making an order from start to finish. The workers enjoy their work and are paid high wages. There are very few other local employment opportunities for skilled woodwork craftsmen.

The design team has been developing a range of more modern designs to be made to order and delivered in 4 weeks. The directors of PDL believe that this will help them to compete with larger firms that produce modern furniture that sells at a low price but is of a lower quality.

The factory is relatively small for the 40 furniture makers and space is limited. Similarly, there is little space for the storage of stock and finished furniture.

PDL has had many orders for their new modern designs, but finds it difficult to know when these orders will be placed by customers. Sometimes customers have to wait 12 weeks for their delivery. The directors have noticed that many of the new pieces of furniture ordered are very similar. It is only the finishing touches that make each order unique to each customer.

The directors of PDL are considering changing to flow production for future orders. The skilled craftsmen will need training to use the new machinery and will be responsible for small parts of the production process.

Demand for Fone ltd's ultra-thin phone cases has been increasing. However, the production department has not been able to make them in the quantity required. Fone ltd has decided that it will introduce flow production in the department.

Specialist machinery was installed in April. In the new flow production process, workers have specific jobs, such as loading different coloured materials into the machines. The process will allow changes to be made quickly, such as the shape and style of the phone cases for different makes and models of phones. The new flow production process means the business can produce up to 100 000 phone cases a month.

Production of phone cases at Fone ltd

Jameel studied business at college and learned about writing business plans. He has been employed as a carpenter for five years. As a hobby, he started to make modern, stylish wooden toys, including trains, farm buildings and cars, selling them to friends and family to cover his costs. His friends and family were impressed with the quality of the toys he made, so Jameel decided to turn his hobby into a business, initially making toys in his garage and selling them to local toy shops.

Jameel has now been running his business, JAA Toys, for two years. The toys have become popular and the business is receiving larger orders from many toy shops. To help meet this increasing demand, Jameel has rented a small business workshop, purchased more machinery and plans to recruit staff.

Jameel is concerned about rising costs due to the expansion, so he wants to keep the cost of wages down. He has also struggled to manage cash flow during quieter periods, and has had to borrow money from his family to cover essential costs. There are some weeks when Jameel expects production to be low because there are very few orders. The business will be very busy at other times, such as before Christmas. Jameel is aware he needs to recruit skilled production staff to make high-quality toys to his unique designs. This is important to maintain the unique selling point (USP) of JAA Toys.