III. Read the text and check up your answers in ex. II. When we talk about production we should pay attention to such factors as manufacturing itself, product development

When we talk about production we should pay attention to such factors as manufacturing itself, product development, quality control, innovation, new production methods, production lines and robotics.

Let’s start first with defining the concept of production. So, production is the process of manufacturing something. It is linked with some certain companies, whose job is to produce various goods. There are three types of production: job(individual) production, batch(small quantities) production and mass(large quantities) production.

The goods manufactured at a factory, plant or works are called the company’s output. The output, in turn, depends on the capacity. If an industry works at full capacity it means it is using all its available resources. If there is spare capacity, then it’s not using all its available resources.

There are also several techniques that a company may use to make the production process more efficient. For instance, lean production (or lean manufacturing), where the inputs should be kept to a minimum. Here you do everything to reduce your costs.

Let’s now go to the phase of product development. Nowadays many businesses are product-led, which means they design and make a product, and then they try to convince consumers to buy it. R&D departments help to develop new products and improve the existing ones. R&D is potentially risky, although it’s worth taking the risk if it leads to a successful, profitable product.

Of course, when you produce some goods, you have to pay attention to quality control. You need to constantly monitor the quality of your products, ask your customers about the goods. In this way companies usually carry out routine checks, have quality circles, and when the officials inspect them everything seems to be quite normal. Benchmarking is also a very important factor here, because it involves comparing business practices between companies. Total quality management (TQM) is an essential part of your business as well. It aims to improve the company’s performance and is connected with the responsibility of every worker in every department.

And now a few words about innovations and new production methods. Without innovations there wouldn’t be any inventions and you and your business might suffer. To be at the leading edge of technological development you need to introduce new methods and technologies, which should be state-of-the-art. And let’s not forget about intellectual property right, which means you have to patent your products, or sometimes you may work and make something under licence.

As we know different products are now made on assembly line (or production line). Many tasks previously carried out by workers have been taken over by robots – part of process of automation. At present many companies use computers in designing and manufacturing products.

Well, in general, a lot can be said about the sphere of production, but then we would have to go into detail, and without practical experience it’s not easy to talk about it.

IV. Answer these questions using the active vocabulary of the text.

1. What factors should we pay attention to when we talk about production?

2. What is production?

3. What are the three types of production?

4. What is output?

5. What is lean production?

6. Does TQM involve comparing business practices between companies?

7. Why should technologies in production be state-of-the-art?

8. How can we keep intellectual property?

V. Match the halves of the phrases from the text.