The productive process is the union of operations necessary to be able to make, transform or elaborate on anything. In the business field, it is usually identified with the creation of a product, a service…
Regardless of the field in which they are framed, production processes start from similar concepts and have a similar basic path. Planning and fulfilling the different stages are crucial in this path.
The production process in the business environment
There is no doubt that the production process is key in companies and basic when creating or manufacturing any product or service.
A production process needs a previous planning phase complementing production, marketing, and distribution projections. On the other hand, the importance of this process in the company is not only related to the creation or transformation process itself but also issues such as efficiency applied to optimizing resources.
A manufacturing process cuts across all the elements at play within the company. It must respect a series of times and stages to be as efficient as possible and to meet expectations.
How a production process is organized
It will organize the production process around a series of stages that serve as milestones in the planned development.
The first stage is the design phase of the process itself. In this phase, it is necessary to reflect on what is to be produced and the means to do so. In this phase, every factor that will intervene in the production process is analyzed, from human resources, financing, possible marketing, etc. It is a key phase that culminates with the beginning of the development of the process.
In the next stage, the production object begins to take shape. That is a broad stage where testing, redesigns, or initial planning corrections can occur. However, once the actual production phase has been launched, at an advanced stage of this stage, modifications should be minimal.
In the case of the processing industry, for example, this process would be the one that culminates with the raw material transformed into the final product.
Finally, before leaving the production process, one must address the destination stage of production. If we continue with the example of the processing industry, this phase would be when the final product already transformed serves the use for which it was designed. It could be for direct sale, as a transformation element, etc.
Different types of production processes
There is no single type of production process. Although these are the most common, processes can interact and generate mixed methods.
Linear process
That is a very common type of process when creating goods or services. In these production methods, the raw materials are the basis of the requirement that the product itself will generate. These are highly efficient processes, and especially when focused on a single product or service, they allow very high production levels to be obtained.
Process by project
That is a productive process intended for products with unique characteristics, for example, the composition, recording, and commercial release of a record. Another different example is the construction of a house. In this type of project, additional activities and tools are chained together, which, organized among themselves, are the ones that end up generating the objective. It is a project in which the planning and management of the connections between the parts are basic.
Irregular or intermittent process
Intermittent or irregular processing can also be known as batch production processes. In this case, the productions will not have a regular transit and are usually characterized by the possibility of having several common objectives similar to each other. They require little modification to the production process but allow a differentiated variety of products or services to be obtained.
In the industrial field, this process is often associated with those workspaces where machinery with similar characteristics is joined together, producing similar products with slight variations.
Although there are other production processes, such as those made to order (which can be confused with the process by project), these three groups would be the most important.
A production process must consider not only the company’s characteristics or the strategies behind the idea or development but must also be able to adapt to market conditions.
In short, this is one of the pillars on which a company’s success generally rests. For the same development idea, the difference between a good or bad production process can be the borderline between success and failure.