Manufacturing Theories and Trend

Definition of manufacturing The process of converting raw materials,

components, or parts into finished goods that meet a customer's expectations or specifications. Manufacturing commonly employs a man-machine setup with division of labor in a large scale production.

Shortly we can say that the manufacturing process itself involves changing the form of goods.

According to definition it has some following features-

Changing the form of goods Operation conducted in factories It involves division of labor Power-driven machinery used

The Manufacturing Process and Location

Manufacturing Process Manufacturing processes are the steps through which

raw materials are transformed into a final product. At the time of establishing a factory a manufacturer

makes several separate or interrelated decision about the nature of business, including the following-

1. The scale of operation, including how much is to be produced and at what price it is to be offered to the customer?

2. The technique to be adopted which involves appropriate combination of inputs.

3. The location of the factory.

There are basic steps in manufacturing processes, these includes the following;

I. Creating the design for the productsII. Sourcing raw materialsIII. Processing the raw materialsIV. Production and quality controlV. Marketing

I. Creating the design of the products: It is one of the first thing to be considered

in manufacturing. Designs should dictate the utility of the

product to the end customer and it should not only be inherent to the product itself but as well as to the packaging.

In designing the product and its packaging, it must be considered that it should be innovative, creative and contemporary.

II. Sourcing the raw materials: It depends upon the kind of product that is

being manufactured. Raw materials in manufacturing can be acquired from local sources or it might be imported from other countries.

Local raw materials mostly comes from the nature such as from the mines, plantations, farms, fisheries and more.

Imported raw materials can be acquired mostly from other business firms such as crude oil, flour, chemicals, machinery and parts, electronic parts and several others.

III. Processing the raw materials: It also depends from the kind of products that are

manufactured. There are three manufacturing processes that can be used depending upon the nature of the product to be produced.

Analytical process: This process involves the breaking down of the raw materials into smaller parts. Examples of analytical process is the processing of different preserve foods such as corned beefs, hot dogs, sausages and several others.

Synthetic process: This process involves the assembling of ready made parts or by using mixed ingredients. Example is the manufacturing of automobiles where in most of the parts are assembled.

Conditioning process: In this process the raw materials may be change on its form in order for it to be used in another purpose. An example for this is the processing of marble which is reshaped and smoothened and change from its original appearance to be used as tiles

iv. Production and quality control: It assures that a single product has the

same quality of the rest that are being manufactured.

The use of workers who are trained for checking in every stage of manufacturing processes will ensure that the products undergoes quality control and meet the company's standard.

v. Marketing: It involves the distribution of the

finish products to the consumers.

Success in marketing depends upon the products quality, demand price, advertisements and several other factors.

Manufacturing Location

The choice of location cannot be considered in isolation from scale and technique.

Different scales of operation may require different locations to give access to markets of different sizes, and if the location decision is made first, this may have an important bearing on the output that the firm can expect to sell.

Different techniques will favor different locations as firms tend to gravitate toward cheap sources of the inputs required in the largest quantities, and location itself can influence the combination of inputs and hence the technique adopted.

The two major sets of economic variables influencing industrial location are thus those relating to technique and those relating to scale.

The way these variables affect and affected by location is very important, and its introduction here helps to emphasize at the outset the interdependence of the three decisions.

Business success may not be determined by choice of location alone, but technique and scale as they influence profits and cannot be divorced from location.

Classical Location Principles

For the greater part of the 20th century geographers depend on theory to explain manufacturing patterns developed at a time. The location of traditional manufacturing process involved with the refining of mineral resources such as those can still best accounted for using classical approach.

Classical industrial location theory assumes perfect competition among firms where in no firms experience monopoly advantages arising from a particular location. Some classical theories are discussed below.

producers try to produce his product with minimum or least cost. It has three assumption

a) Raw material occur at only a few locations

b) Market existed only at specific placesc) Labor supply was immobile and

available only at several specific locations.

Least cost

substitution approach allows for substituting any of the factors in the production process such as cheap coal might be exchanged for higher cost natural gas in determining an optimum location for one firm.

Substitution

Profit maximization

it indicates that firms locates so as maximize revenues.

Spatial margins: the spatial margins perspective combines features from both the production and revenue sides.

It allows for locational flexibility within a range defined by the intersection of space cost curves (SCC) and space revenue curves (SRC).

Interdependence

The interdependence of firms can best be accounted for in a systems framework because it includes the operating units and their relationship with one another and external environment.

Central place theory

Firms with widely dispersed branch plant locations in various sizes of cities can best be accounted for with central place theory.

Critique of classical theory:

These approaches allow for many goals other than minimizing costs or maximizing profits.

Contemporary Behavioral and Structural Approach

This behavioral approach emphasizes the dynamic and uncertain environment.

It has grown out the awareness that today’s larger and more diversified multinational firm exerts greater control over its business environment.The behavioral approach also has limitations. It fails to take into account the impact of the political and social environment.

The structural approach overcomes this weakness by attempting to explain behavior using a historical-political perspective.

Behavioral location theory

The behavioral approach provides an alternative participate on the role of industrial location to the firm.

Many firms are uncertain and defensive in their behavior, which leads them to be very conservative and consider a shift in the location only as a last resort.

This process simply involves on-site expansion. In other cases indirect locational strategies involve closures or establishing branch locations.

Structural approach:

The structural approach to industrial location focuses attention on the political economy of economic growth rate and its impact on industrial location.

From a Marxist perspective, the structuralist argument suggests that competitive processes lead “to a fall in the general rate of profit, forcing firms to find whatever means may be available to keep up profits and accumulate capital in the interest of survival”.

This process is turn decreased skill level requirements in the workplace and led to disenfranchisement of labor