Outline of the Discrete Manufacturing Process
The sequence of assembly is only one part of a much wider process that involves many different disciplines and areas of expertise.
A Garlic Press Takes Shape
To get a sense of discrete manufacturing in action, imagine the creation of a garlic press that retailers will sell alongside consumer packaged goods (CPG) in a supermarket.
- Design: First, designers create the garlic press’s blueprint and specifications, which involve detailed engineering and computer-aided design (CAD) systems. In this case, the garlic press needs two handles, a hinge assembly, and a detachable hopper and screen.
- Planning: Now, the team determines what materials, equipment, and resources the product needs, then maps out an assembly process, schedules production timelines, and estimates its costs.
- Procurement: The manufacturer will fabricate the handles and hopper, and purchase the hinge sub-assembly from a supplier. Acquiring the raw materials and components requires careful navigation of supplier relationships and delivery schedules.
- Production: The manufacturer implements production across work centers responsible for molding and machining the handles and hopper, with another center dedicated to attaching the hinge subassembly.
- Quality Control: Inspecting the product ensures each unit meets the required specifications and standards. A dedicated onsite department handles this process through random testing.
- Packaging: Preparing the product for storage and shipment is the final physical stage in the production process. The manufacturer decides to use window box packaging to offer visibility while keeping the product sanitary. It establishes a work center to handle this step.
A Discrete Manufacturing Process Flow Chart
What is Process Manufacturing?
Process manufacturing combines different raw materials and ingredients into a finished product through mixing, blending, and transformation methods like boiling or chemical reactions. Instead of units, this method creates end products measured in volume, like gallons of chemical solvent or quarts of juice.
The key elements of process manufacturing differ from discrete manufacturing in subtle ways:
- A recipe or formula and specialized BOMs define the ingredients that go into a process manufacturing product. The recipe also specifies the operations or techniques that will successfully combine the ingredients. Process manufacturing BOMs include specialized formats for R&D, layered product configurations, manufacturing, and site-specific applications.
- Manufacturing locations are roughly equivalent to work centers. They represent the location or station where the manufacturer performs a set of related tasks and operations. Examples include a brewery’s fermentation tanks or a set of batch reactors for pharmaceuticals.
- Unit of measurement conversions and scalability allow manufacturers to dial the quantity of an output up or down through relatively simple calculations.
- Safety data sheets provide essential information about hazardous chemicals and substances. They inform both the process manufacturers handling these substances and industrial end users, and they follow strict guidelines.
Outline of the Process Manufacturing Workflow
Process manufacturing echoes the stages of discrete manufacturing, but the individual steps differ in important ways.
A New Dish Detergent
To visualize process manufacturing, think of a household cleaning products provider formulating and creating a new, scentless dish detergent.
- Research and development: First, the R&D team experiments with different formulas to capture consumer preferences and ensure cost-effective production. This phase involves creating and refining the exact specifications for ingredients and their proportions.
- Regulatory compliance: The compliance team collaborates closely with R&D to check the proposed formulation against regulatory frameworks in the product’s target markets. Compliance software integrated into their PLM solution makes these checks relatively straightforward.
- Planning: The team forecasts demand and organizes resources and locations by determining raw materials, equipment, and production schedules.
- Procurement: Working with a roster of suppliers, the procurement team sources and purchases necessary ingredients. They consider overall price, quality control, and existing relationships. The dish soap’s elaborate mix of solvents, surfactants, stabilizers, and other ingredients requires an extensive network of suppliers—some international and some domestic.
- Production: At this point, manufacturing locations are ready to combine raw materials. Production includes two stages: mixing the ingredients and processing. During the processing stage, machines continuously heat and stir the solution to ensure they distribute the ingredients evenly.
- Quality control: Quality specialists test the detergent for consistency and quality by sampling batches and performing lab analyses to ensure it meets specifications.
- Packaging: The packaging team chooses clear vessels and minimal labels that showcase the clear, colorless, odorless liquid. The dish soap is ready for storage and distribution.
A Flow Chart for Process Manufacturing
