Manufacturing methods is an area where designers and manufacturers have to take many of the different kinds of manufacturing methods into account such as using different types of technology to create designs for products and using different production systems to create and manufacture products. The first type of technology used is CAD which stands for computer aided design. This is a method of designing which allows designers to draw out their designs and then scan them onto a computer so that they can be edited in 2D and 3D. This allows designers to experiment with different colours and fabric designs to try to see which colour and fabric combinations work best for a fabric. An example of a product which could be developed this way could be a dress which could be tried out with lots of different colours and pattern on it. It allows designers to develop each design more quickly and easily as it makes it easier to modify existing ideas and helps designers to improve the accuracy and the presentation of their designs as when computer editing is involved, there is less chance that there will be room for human error. Design ideas can be saved, stored and edited very easily on a computer, makes using CAD easier and cheaper to modify designs as the designer goes along as it means that when different fabrics are being tested, the actual fabrics being tested are not being wasted in reality which could cost a designer a lot more if they were to actually experiment using the real fabrics, so using CAD is evidently cheaper than doing fabric experimenting manually. For manufactures, CAM technology is also used as it allows manufacturers to create products using computer aided manufacture to help them to create products accurately and efficiently. Using CAM also helps to speed up the production of products and allows product results to be highly accurate and consistent in large-scale production. Using CAM also allows manufacturers to be able to create more advanced styles and decorative products using technology such as digital printing, embroidery, knitting and laser cutting. This allows manufacturers to create the best and most accurate looking products such as jumpers and other detailed products.
There are also various different manufacturing systems which are put into practice in manufacturing companies. One-off production is where a single product is designed and made to a client's specification and measurements. There is usually high labour and material costs where one-off production is concerned as a high level of design and manufacturing skills are needed to create one-off products so there products would need to be made by highly skilled professionals. An example of a one-off production product would be a made-to-measure wedding dress. Another type of production system is batch production. This is where set quantities of a product are manufactured to order. This type of production requires a high level of design, pattern making and sampling skills so these types of products would need to be made by a skilled manufacturer. Materials are cost-effective and manufacturing costs are lower than one-off production as there garments are designed to fit a range of standard sizes and shapes. This is a production method that a high street fashion shop would use as it would allow a high street fashion shop to control their stock intake whilst getting identical products for each order. An example of a batch production product would be a set of jumpers or jackets as these are products which are generally made to fit a range of sizes without being made to measure. Also, Mass production is the industrial-scale manufacture of large quantities of products which is usually used for products that vary very little from each other or are identical in design, style and colour. Mass production is used for products that are needed in very large numbers, for example; socks or T-shirts. This type of production system usually involves very low labour costs, is cheaper to use to create products and is not very time consuming to create products in which makes it an ideal scale of production for manufactures to use to create products. Just-in-time manufacturing is when materials are ordered so they arrive just as they are needed so that no stock needs to be stored. This is a very efficient way of controlling the amount of stock which is sued to make products.
Maintenance is another area where designers and manufacturers need to take into account certain things when they are designing and making products. One of the main things that they need to take into account is will the product they are creating have planned obsolescence or not. This would be used for products revolving around technology such as phones, washing machines or dishwashers which would be planned to break after a certain amount of time or certain amount of use to the product. This would mean that the designer and manufacturer would gain more money from designing a product with planned obsolescence in mind as if the product broke then the product buyer would need to have a replacement for their broken product so they would have to pay the designer and manufacturer more money to buy another product to replace their previous one. On the other hand, the buyer may not want to return to the same company if their previously purchased product broke so this is something that a designer would have to take into consideration when designing the product as they may lose business through doing this.
In relation to the maintenance of products such as washing machine, dishwashers and phones, product life also takes into account the amount of time a product will function for. The life-span of a product depends on the quality of the product being made. This could be due to the materials used to create the product as if durable materials were not used to make a product then this could mean that a product would have a very short life-span as it is likely to break or dysfunction very easily. Products with short life-spans mean that more products stop working and are thrown out more often which creates environmental problems where the issue of landfill sites are concerned. Designers and manufacturers need to think carefully about the materials they will use if they want their products to be better for the environment as they would need to choose higher quality and more long-lasting and durable materials if they want to extend the life of their products. Another consideration for the designers to make when deciding to use better quality materials would be that they may lose money as their products would last for longer and would not need to be re-bought when replacements would need to be made. This would be a very important consideration to be made when designing and making a product as decisions would need to be made as to whether the designers and manufacturers would benefit or whether the environment would benefit.
In conclusion, I have explained why designers and manufacturers have to make considerations where manufacturing methods, maintenance, product life and environmental considerations are concerned and I have also explained the importance of designers and manufacturers considering each of these things when designing and making products.
by
hollieddhxx (student)
