33 exam-style questions on Production systems — topic B4.1 of Design in practice in the IB Design Technology syllabus — with answers and explanations. Samples below; the full set is free with an account.
A smelting plant holds its reduction cells molten day and night and never shuts them down: letting the bath freeze would cost weeks of work and a rebuild of the cell lining before any output could restart. Which production system does this describe?
Answer: Continuous production
Continuous production is defined by a process that is not interrupted because starting and stopping is what costs the money, not by the annual volume alone. A mass production line makes the same high volume but can be stopped at the end of a shift and started again the next morning at little cost.
On an assembly line each operator checks and signs the torque figure recorded at the previous station before starting their own operation, and a supervisor audits the record sheets each week. This arrangement is best described as:
Answer: Quality assurance within the process
Quality assurance is the set of procedures that stop a fault being produced, and checking the previous operation acts before value is added. Quality control works the other way round, detecting faults in items that have already been made.
A boatyard builds twelve 14 m sailing hulls a year. Each hull stays on its cradle from start to finish while joiners, electricians and painters come to it in turn. Which factory layout is described?
Answer: Fixed-position layout
When the product is too large or too heavy to move economically, the work stations travel to it instead, which is fixed-position layout. Line, process and cellular layouts all assume the part moves between operations.
A bicycle assembler moves to just-in-time delivery of tyres from a single overseas supplier. Which consequence follows most directly?
Answer: Buffer stock falls, so a late shipment halts assembly
Just-in-time delivery exists to drive inventory towards zero, so there is no buffer left to absorb a disruption in supply. Treating JIT as a warehousing strategy inverts its whole purpose.
A programme needs 6000 aluminium pump bodies in total. Die casting needs a 60000 dollar tool and then costs 4 dollars a body; machining from billet needs no tool and costs 12 dollars a body. Machining is chosen. Identify the single change to the brief that would make die casting the cheaper route.
Answer: Raising the programme quantity above 7500 bodies
The two routes cost the same when 60000 + 4n = 12n, that is at n = 7500 units, so only a quantity above that figure turns the decision. At 6000 units machining costs 72000 dollars against 84000; an 11 dollar machining rate still gives 66000 against 84000, and 55000 of tooling still gives 79000 against 72000.
A plant automates an assembly operation that runs six product variants in short runs, and the labour cost per unit falls as expected. Identify the cost that rises most directly because the runs are short.
Answer: The cost of changing the cell over between variants
Automation buys a low cost per unit at the price of a long set-up: tooling, fixtures and programs must be exchanged and proved for every variant, and with short runs that cost is spread over few units. This is the standard trade-off of automation, and it is why flexible equipment is preferred where the mix changes often.
That was 6 of 33 Production systems questions.
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33 Production systems questions — free with an account. Spaced repetition, streaks and full exam simulations included.
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