Basics of Supply Chain Management

Chapter 3

Transformation Process Choices for Making Products Conforming to Product Design Specifications and Tolerances

3.1 Introduction

After the product is designed, a limited quantity of products, known as prototypes, are produced initially and used for test marketing to receive customer feedback. Customer feedback data are then used for refining the final design of the product, which attempts to not only meet but also exceed the ever-increasing customer expectations. Once the final design is made, the manufacturing department must make the product conform to the final design specifications and tolerances. This is known as quality of conformance.

3.2 Traditional Manufacturing Process Choices

Traditionally, manufacturing process choices can ...