Manufacturing Processes and Production Techniques
Scales of production
Understand one-off, batch, mass and continuous production and how scale affects tooling cost, unit cost, labour skill and flexibility. Learn the trade-off: high tooling costs suit large volumes because they spread over many units.
Shaping and joining processes
Know material-specific processes: wood (sawing, planing, jointing - mortise and tenon, dowel, dovetail), metal (casting, forging, rolling, welding, brazing, riveting), polymer (injection moulding, vacuum forming, extrusion, blow moulding, line bending), and additive processes such as 3D printing. Understand when each suits production volume and shape complexity - vacuum forming for large simple shells, injection moulding for high-volume complex parts.
Finishing and quality
Know surface preparation, finishes (paint, varnish, anodising, galvanising) and quality control methods such as jigs, templates, go/no-go gauges and tolerances. Understand standard components and how they reduce cost and assembly time.
Common traps
Questions often confuse processes suited to thermoplastics with those for thermosets, or assume the cheapest process per unit is always best (ignoring tooling cost). Another trap is confusing a jig (guides the tool) with a template (guides marking or cutting outline).
Worked rule of thumb
Use the break-even idea: if tooling costs £20,000 and saves £4 per unit, the tool pays back at 5,000 units. Below that, batch or one-off methods are usually cheaper.