Types of Production – A Level Business

A Level Business – Types of Production

If you’re studying for an A Level in Business, it’s vital for you to know the different types of production and their best application.

You need to understand the differences between all the types of production – batch production, mass production, continuous production, bespoke production etc. I am not going to bore you and try to explain them all here, that’s what a textbook is for!

To apply types of production to everyday business around us, we’re going to think of it in terms of vehicles and food production. I saw a Land Rover once that was owned by a police force in the UK. It had been specifically designed to get a SWAT team into the upstairs of a building. A one-off job, also known as bespoke production.

If a local authority wants some particular type of bin lorries, to fit their requirements, they contact a company in Birmingham who specialise in such things. (I won’t give the name unless they want to pay me for hyping their product). They make whatever you want, in batches – batch production.

The big money in automotive production is in churning out zillions of almost identical cars. Think of the number of Ford Escorts, Sierras or Transit vans you see on the roads and in car garages for sale every day. This is a prime example of mass production.

Continuous production is one of the most prevalent types of production found in Business. Think of food production carried out for Supermarkets all around the world by companies such as Heinz or Kraft. When I was a boy Heinz used to have the slogan: “A million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beans and say: ‘Beanz meanz Heinz’”. Yes, they were believed to sell 1,000,000 cans of beans (or beanz) per day.

A Level Business Blog Item, by Philip Greening-Jackson.