Making clothes must have been one of the very first
‘production’ tasks carried out by early humans, and it is still an important industrial sector. With the world garment market worth around €1.3 trillion, it is estimated as employing up to 75 million people.2 Of all garment- producing countries, China has long been seen as the master of clothing manufacturing, and its largest producer and exporter of apparel and textiles is the Dishang Group. Founded in 1993, Dishang has an annual turnover of $1.5bn, producing garments for such well- known brands as Zara, Matalan and Adidas. But, although China is still a leader in terms of technical expertise and production efficiency, when its labour costs increased, Dishang, like other producers, expanded to set up operations in Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh. They are a huge and sophisticated enterprise, manufacturing over 73 million garments per year from 80 wholly- owned factories across 12 global locations. Their modern operations include automated technology, full on-line and end-of-line quality control systems and the use of
acceptable quality limit (AQL) inspection levels according to the requirements of each customer. At Dishang’s headquarters, customers can peruse 50,000 fabrics in the company’s large digital library. Once customers have chosen a pattern they like, they can upload a picture into an internal system and be shown similar styles. Dishang’s Chairman, Lihua Zhu, believes that the Group’s success is down to three factors: ‘Firstly our volume strength is very important. Due to the size of the group we can secure the more competitive prices for our customers (when purchasing raw materials and components). Secondly we offer in-house design expertise and have factories and internal teams that specialise in different products, meaning brands and retailers can come to us for everything. And thirdly, we approach international markets differently with our own offices, which saves costs by cutting out the middle man.’3
One certainly would not see such high volume at Sands Films’ costume-making workshop. Every film or television programme that is set in any period, other than the present day, needs costumes for its actors. And most
5.2 Diagnostic question: Do processes match volume–variety requirements ■ 167
films have a lot of characters, so that means a lot of cos- tumes. Sands Films in London has a well-established and permanent garment workshop. It is what we will describe later in the chapter as a typical ‘jobbing’ process. Sands Films provides a wide range of wardrobe and costume services. Its customers are the film, stage and TV produc- tion companies, each of which have different require- ments and time constraints. And because each project is different and has different requirements, the workshop’s jobs go from making a single simple outfit to providing a wide variety of specially designed costumes and facil- ities over an extended production period. The facilities include most normal tailoring processes such as cutting, dyeing and printing, and varied specialist services such as corset- and crinoline-making, as well as millinery (hats).
During the design and making process, actors often visit the workshop, which has been called an ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of theatrical costumes. The workshop is where actors come face to face with their character for the first time. Making a costume can only start once a project has been approved and a costume designer appointed, although discussions
with the workshop may have started prior to that. When the budget and the timing have been agreed, the designer can start to present ideas and finished designs to the workshop. And although the processes in the workshop are well established, each costume requires different skills and so has different routes through the stages.
BBC Films/Focus Features/Kobal/Shutterstock
performed by the process and in the way materials information, or customers, flow through the process. Different terms are sometimes used to identify process types depending on whether they are predominantly manufacturing or service processes and there is some variation in how the names are used. This is especially so in service process types. It is not uncommon to find manufacturing terms used also to describe service processes. Perhaps most importantly, there is some degree of overlap between process types. The different process types are shown in Figure 5.4.
Diverse/
complex
Repeated/
divided
Intermittent
Continuous Process
tasks Process
Service process types Manufacturing process types
Project processes
Jobbing processes
Mass processes Batch
processes
Continuous processes
Professional services
Mass services Service
shops High
Low
Low Variety
High Volume
High Low
Low Variety
High Volume
Project processes
Project processes are those that deal with discrete, usually highly customised products. Often the timescale of making the product is relatively long, as are the intervals between the com- pletion of each product. The activities involved in the process may be ill-defined and uncertain, sometimes changing during the process itself. Examples include advertising agencies, shipbuild- ing, most construction companies, movie production companies, drilling oil wells and installing computer systems. Any process map for project processes will almost certainly be complex, partly because each unit of output is usually large with many activities occurring at the same time, and partly because the activities often involve significant discretion to act according to professional judgement. In fact, a process map for a whole project would be extremely com- plex, so rarely would a whole project be mapped, but small parts of it may be.
Jobbing processes
Jobbing processes also deal with very high variety and low volumes, but whereas in project processes each project has resources devoted more or less exclusively to it, in jobbing pro- cesses each ‘product’ has to share the operation’s resources with many others. The process will work on a series of products but, although all the products will require the same kind of attention, each will differ in its exact needs. Examples of jobbing processes include many pre- cision engineers such as specialist toolmakers, furniture restorers, ‘made-to-measure’ tailors and the printer who produces tickets for the local social event. Jobbing processes produce more and usually smaller items than project processes but, like project processes, the degree of repetition is low. Many jobs could be ‘one-offs’. Again, any process map for a jobbing process could be relatively complex for similar reasons to project processes. Although job- bing processes sometimes involve considerable skill, they are usually more unpredictable than project processes.
Batch processes
Batch processes can look like jobbing processes, but without the degree of variety normally associated with jobbing. As the name implies, batch processes usually produce more than one
‘product’ at a time. So each part of the operation has periods when it is repeating itself, at least while the ‘batch’ is being processed. The size of the batch could be just two or three, in which case the batch process would differ little from jobbing, especially if each batch is a totally novel product. Conversely, if the batches are large, and especially if the products are familiar to the operation, batch processes can be fairly repetitive. Because of this, the batch type of process can be found over a wider range of volume and variety levels than other process types.
Examples of batch processes include machine tool manufacturing, the production of some spe- cial gourmet frozen foods, the manufacture of most of the component parts that go into mass- produced assemblies such as automobiles, and the production of most clothing. Batch process maps may look straightforward, especially if different products take similar routes through the process with relatively standard activities being performed at each stage.
Mass processes
Mass processes produce in high volume, usually with narrow effective variety. A car manu- facturing plant, for example, might produce several thousand variants of cars if every option of engine size, colour and equipment is taken into account. Yet its effective variety is low because the different variants do not affect the basic process of production. The activities in the car manufacturing plant, like all mass processes, are essentially repetitive and largely pre- dictable. In addition to the car plant, examples of mass processes include consumer durables manufacturers, most food processes such as a frozen pizza manufacturer, beer bottling plants and CD production. Process maps for this type of process will be straightforward sequences of activities.
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Continuous processes
Continuous processes are one step beyond mass processes in so much as they operate at even higher volume and often have even lower variety. Sometimes they are literally continuous in that their products are inseparable, being produced in an endless flow. Continuous processes are often associated with relatively inflexible, capital-intensive technologies with highly pre- dictable flow. Examples of continuous processes include petrochemical refineries, electricity utilities, steel making and internet server farms. Like mass processes, process maps will show few elements of discretion, and although products may be stored during the process, the pre- dominant characteristic of most continuous processes is a smooth flow from one part of the process to another.
Professional services
Professional services are high-variety, low-volume processes, where customers may spend a considerable time in the service process. Such services usually provide high levels of customi- sation, so contact staff are given considerable discretion. They tend to be people-based rather