Suitability of continuous or flow Production

In order that flow methods can operations satisfactorily a number of requirements must be met:

1.There Must be Substantially constant Demand: Should demand be spasmodic there will be a build up of finished work which can give rise to storage difficulties. Alternatively if production is caused to fluctuate along with demand then the setting up and balancing of the flow line will need to be carried out frequently giving an excessive high total cost.

2.The Product or Task must be Standardized: A flow line is inherently inflexible and cannot accommodate variation in the work required.

3.Materials Must be to Specification and Delivered to Time: Due to the inflexibility mentioned above the flow line cannot accept the variations in materials which can be incorporate if batch or job method sae being used. Furthermore if material is not available when it is required the effect is very serious since the whole line will be frozen.

4.All operations Comprising the Task Must be Defined: In order that the line will maintain its balance all operations must remain constant. This can only be done if the operation are recorded in detail.

5.Work must conform to Quality Standards: Unsung job or batch methods variations in quality errors at one stage can be compensated for by extra work elsewhere with flow methos this cannot happen since each stage has a defined operations with a pre set allowed time.

6. Correct plant and Equipment Must be Provided at Each Stage: Lack of correct apparatus will unbalance a line causing weakness throughout the whole sequence. This can result in a severe under utilization of equipment should a work station stage require a piece of equipment for only a part of the operations time, equipment must be provide and its under utilization accepted.

7.Inspection Must be in line with Operations: Unless the inspection stage is balanced with the rest of the operations a dislocation of the flow will inevitable take place.

8.All stage Must be Balanced: If the requirement that the tasks do not queue is to be fulfilled, then the time taken at each stage must be the same i ,e the line must be balanced this can lead to inefficiency due to an inability to balance stages.