Market Needs

Market Needs Marketing It is likely that there would be no direct effect on marketing caused by a change from batch to line processing. However, depending on what was happening outside the company, there could be an effect. If, as is arguably the case, line processing is more costly than batch processing, it might be necessary to market the product without discounts and so on. This could be problematical if there was a demand for lower costs from major clients (Cohen, 1994, p. 24+).

On the other hand, it is probable that a perceptive marketing function could use the new 'flexibility' and customize-ability as a marketing tool. The concern for marketing might involve the potential delay in shipping and/or smaller lots of product available. Finance A change from batch to line processing is likely to have several effects on finance, arguably most of them adding costs and potentially diminishing the cash position of the company and even frightening additional investment.

An example from the dairy industry from packworld.com relates the experience of a milk-processing plant that went from line to batch processing; arguably, the opposite would occur if it had changed its process from batch to line processing. In that operation, few operators or none at all are stationed on the filling floor. Rather, they are on the second floor and check an HMI screen to see what is underway.

When the change was made, lines were dedicated to a single bottle size so that no changes of that kind need be made. The article says: What does change from batch to batch is the fat content of the milk being filled, the label being applied, the ink-jet coding that goes on the label, and the bottle closure (a different color for skimmed, semi-skimmed, and whole milk).

Based on what the operators see on their HMI screens, they mount the proper label roll on a splicing unit and confirm it has been mounted. They also fill a cap hopper with the appropriate caps. Again, they confirm at the HMI screen that this action has taken place. Without these confirmations, the system will not proceed to the next batch order (Packaging World, 2005, p. 82).

Obviously, this has implications for finance before such a program begins whether the change is from batch to line or line to batch; in addition to revamping machinery, there might also be 'investment' in various industrial experts to get a new process properly set up. If that change was from batch to line processing, however, as suggested here, there would, over time, be reduced outflow of cash because of the probability of staff reductions. That would not be a concern for finance, however, but rather an advantage.

The real concern would possibly arise in light of retooling and possibly causing some trepidation on the part of investors who dislike change. Human Resources It would seem that flexibility would be increased with the shift to line production. Taplin (1996) then posits that increased flexibility allows for the introduction of expanded job dimensions; these both depend upon and foster "heightened levels of commitment and responsibility from production workers, according to Hirst and Zeitlin (1992).

This would open avenues for human resources to both recruit and manage personnel in ways that are more 'career oriented' than it can when workers are as unspecialized as might be the case in a batch-process environment. Also, as Taplin noted, "flexible system enterprises do not necessitate that all workers be participants in what amounts to a primary labor market.

In fact, flexible production enables some firms to capitalize upon new technology to intensify and better coordinate work while others rely upon traditional wage depressing tactics of small firm labor markets" (1996, p. 191+). Accounting Albright notes that understanding "manufacturing overhead drivers is fundamental to designing an accurate cost management system" (1998, p. 267+). In an article about cost drivers, Albright suggested that batch-level cost drivers could be affected by exogenous factors unrelated to the batch-level activities in place. He says examples include deviations from theoretically optimal production schedules to accommodate.