CONSUMER BUYING MOTIVES

The modern concept of marketing considers the customer as the king or prime as
satisfaction and delight of customer is the ‘mission of a business. is the customer who
shapes the production and ma4eting policies of the rm. A marketer should understand this
fact if he is to beuccess in this mission. He must have sufficient knowledge about the
customers to whom he s going to sell. He must try to understand the nature of customers,
their this and their buying motives if he is to win permanent customers.
A buying motive induces a buyer to buy a product. It is an influence or consideration which
provides an impulse to buy. There is a buying motive hind every purchase. It may not be
the same with every buyer One buyer away purchase a product to satisfy his one need and
another may purchase a product to satisfy an altogether different nerd. Therefore, it is
necessary for áe marketer to identify the buying motives of different kinds of customers. Fr
this he must study the psychology of the customer and design his market-
-mix accordingly. Maslow’s need hierarchy which explains buyer’s motives as been
discussed later in this chapter.
types of Buying Motives,
There are three considerations which make a person purchase a product:
& He has a desire which needs to be satisfied ; (ii) He has an urge which Nueces him to
purchase ; and (iii) He has a reasoning.
Broadly speaking, individuals are motivated to buy by internal and renal forces as under:
Internal motives often originate in the minds of the people and are both typical and
psychological in nature. They are broadly classified into two rational which are based on
logical reasoning or thinking and amoral , which are based on personal feelings.
External motives are outside oneself. Since a consumer is the product iiss environment,
his buying motives are influenced by the external factors. us factors like income,
occupation, religion, culture, family and social ‘environment act as motivators.
Buying motives. may also be classified on the basis of product and patronage.
1. Product Motives. These explain why people buy certain products. motives result directly
from the needs of customers. Product motives be of two kinds:
(A) Primary buying motives relate to the reasons why consumers buy one foods rather than
another Such motives result directly from the needs and wants, and include the d 3ire to
achieve recognition, physical well- preservation of self-image, relaxation, beauty,
knowledge, money gain. The seller must discover the customer’s primary motives (for they
are unaware of these) and then direct has appeal as effectively as possible.
(b) Selective buying motives relate to causes that induce a consumer€ purchase certain
class of quality goods. Selection is based on such motives the desire for both economy and
convenience. Some of the most com
selective buying motives include desire for convenience, versatility, econ dependability and
durability.
2. Patronage Motives. These cause a customer to buy products for. particular
manufacturer or retailer. Important patronage motives are the. concerned with fashion,
exclusiveness, dependable after-sales service, vengeance of location, quality, price,
reliability of the seller, punctuality delivery, variety of selection, etc. When a person decides
to buy a particular product or patronize particular retailer, he may be guided by rational or
emotional motives as cussed below.

Rational Motives (Economic Considerations)

These motives are based on a man’s reasoning, logic and ability consideration of economic
consequences. They include the immediacy monetary cost, and long-range cost effecting
the buyer such as economy durability, depreciation, efficiency, degree of labor needed,
dependability and ultimate benefits achieved.
Emotional Motives (Psychological Considerations)
Emotional buying motives are based on personal feelings and cover a we range of motives
including impulses, instincts, habits and drives, etc. The motives include pleasure, comfort,
status, pride, ambition, economic e social achievement, selection of gifts, maintaining and
preserving heath satisfaction of appetite, proficiency, romantic instinct, social accepted
recreation and relaxation, etc. Emotional motives are found more among people of high
income group TV, Air Conditioner, Refrigerator, Washing Machine,. Geyser, Car, etc. a
generally bought to satisfy emotional motives.
Consumer Behavior
“The fact of buying changes the dynamics of the relationship. The will never views the sale
as a favor conferred on the seller and, in effect, bits the seller’s account. A healthy
relationship requires a conies and constant fight against the forces of decline. One of the
west signs of a bad relationship is the absence of complaints. The stomper is either not
being candid or not being contacted. Probably both.
—Theodore Levitt

INRODUCTION
The modern marketing concept makes. customer at the centre-stage of sanitation efforts;
The focus, within the marketing concept to reach the -et customer, sets the ball rolling for
analyzing each of the conditions of the -t market. The first being to find out interest of such
persons as would :‘-t me prospective customers. Then comes the. willingness of such
interested :.ones to buy the offered product. But since customer needs come first and the
organization offers the product, as imperative of the marketing pt, customer’s willingness to
buy cannot be studied in isolation of the nearest of such prospects to satisfy a basic need
from different satisfiers. Consumers’ needs recognition, their involvement level, the
available alternate decision to buy and post-purchase behavior, all are part of the consumer
behavior. Every consumer is unique and this uniqueness infest in search, purchasing,
consuming, reacting, etc. Thus, consumer behavior must be properly understood by
marketers.
 Factors that influences on business buyers.

(1)Economic developments:
Purchasing of materials depend upon the country�s economic conditions. If the
economy is growing rapidly usually the consumption also grows proportionately
then company should source materials accordingly

(2)Supply conditions:
Raw materials required should be matched with the demand condition of the
company. If there is an irregular or seasonal demand exists then company
should adjust their supplies. Any shortage of the raw materials will force the
company to go out of the company.

(3)Political and Legal environment:

Any change in the government policy will have direct or indirect impact on the
company. For example, An engineering firm work towards better environment
standards in their products assuming that all automobile companies adhere to
the international regulations but the government decided to post pone the
regulation standard implementation for 12 years the entire material
manufactured and raw materials will have extra holding and inventory costs.

(4)Competitive environment:
Business buying is very complex. Any technology change adopted by the
competitor should be carefully observed. If the company not able to identify the
competitors move survival will become difficult.

(5)Culture and customs:

Every country has its own culture and customs. As we discussed in the previous
unit, why one should not sell beef products in India, in same way business
buying is also influenced by the culture and customs. For example, most of the
products produced in Japan are of small size to suit their customers. Any
company buying products in Japan should always keep these things in mind.

(6)Organizational objectives:
Purchasing objectives are derived from the organization objectives. For example,
an organization objective is to reduce the overall cost of 20%. Its purchasing
objectives take this as benchmark and try to reduce the cost by 20%.

(7)Organizational policies and procedures:

Companies� policies like centralization versus decentralization of buying and
selling will have direct impact on the company�s production.

(8)Organization structure and systems:

Lesser the hierarchy more will be the flexibility in the organization. Companies
with more number of hierarchies will have plenty of problems to be addressed.

(9)Interpersonal factors:
Business buying will have different outcome on the basis of authority, status,
empathy and persuasiveness that customer and organization posses. Individual
factors. Age, education, job position, Personality risk attitudes of individual will
determine the buying behavior of each role and in turn these changes will have
direct impact on the organization buying.

Marketing Strategy for New Industry Products

Pioneer in a Product - Issues

When a product is new in the industry life cycle, the firm

starting the production and sale is the pioneer. Normally
the growth is slow in the introduction of phase of a new
industry product as the technical problems with the
product are to corrected, production capacities have to
be built up based on market acceptance and growth,
distribution capacity is to be built up from scratch when
distributors have no familiarity with the product, and
customer may have reluctance to change his old
behavior. If the product is an expensive high technology
one, only small number of buyers can afford it.

Companies have choice to be a pioneer or a follower. A

pioneer has to initiate every thing connected with the
product. A follower has the benefit using various firms
that helped the pioneer for his venture. Also he has the
opportunity of studying the pioneer’s product and
market response to it. He can examine the distribution
channels used by the pioneer and gauge their
effectiveness and he can evaluate various marketing
strategies employed by the pioneer. Thus an early
follower has some extra knowledge about the product
and the market.
Is there any Advantage to the

Pioneer?

Some studies indicate that the market pioneer if it can

capture the leadership position gains the most
advantages. Some studies dispute the finding that
pioneers have sustained their leadership. Robertson
and Gatignon give the opinion that an alert pioneer-
leader can pursue various strategies to prevent later
market entrants from wresting away leadership. Being a
pioneer has an advantage that can be capitalized. The
pioneer has to dynamically compete in the market place
to exploit his pioneering advantage. He needs to have a
grand plan for life-cycle of marketing of the product and
launch strategy has to be the first step in that grand
plan.

The pioneer may start from a specific product-market

segment his launch but must have plans to cover the
larger part of the market over a period of time by
launching appropriate product variations and covering
more market segments.

The competitive Cycle – The Pioneer’s Challenge

Initially, the pioneer is the sole supplier with 100%
production capacity and market share.

In the second stage, there is competitive penetration as

competitors build capacities and enter market.

In the growth phase, capacity tends to be overbuilt and

any cyclical downtrends will impact margins for all.
After some time share stability may happen.

Then a commodity competition stage will come where

returns are average.

The final stage will be a decline for the industry and

firms withdraw from the industry. The pioneer needs to
steer through all the stages of the industry life cycle.

Pricing and Promotion Strategies for

Pioneers

Pioneer has the alternative of Skimming pricing or

Penetration pricing.
Skimming is entering the market layer by layer in the
order of value exchange. Initially buyers who are willing
to pay a high price are serviced. This strategy is feasible
if market is unaware of the product and special efforts
are to be done by firms to make the potential buyers
aware of the product.

Pioneer will do rapid skimming if the potential

competition is imminent. In this strategy he will spend
substantial amount on promotion to enlarge the sale
quickly. If the potential competition is not imminent, the
pioneer can undertake slow skimming. He can expand
sales slowly by limiting promotion expenditure.

Penetration is entering a large market with a lower

price. It is done for price sensitive products. Rapid
penetration is preferred when the market is unaware of
the product. The pioneer spends a good deal on launch
and advertising. A slow penetration approach is used
when market is aware of the product, but potential
competition is limited.

Thus price and promotion are the two alternative

dimensions which the pioneer has use in his strategy.
ndustrial Marketing Strategy
Developing A Strategy For Success

Having an effective industrial marketing strategy is difficult for most manufacturing firms. You’re
busy enough as it is to have to worry about the strategies you’re employing for internet marketing.
You’re busy spending your day taking and filling orders and ensuring the quality of your
manufacturing product or service. And yet a good industrial marketing strategy is vital to maintain
the health of your company. Internet Marketing is as important for an industrial firm as it is for a
company that target consumers. Whether it’s consumer traffic, or business to business, people are
searching for the products you sell on the internet. The only question is whether you are allowing
them to find you.

Industrial Marketing Strategy: Leveraging the Power of the Internet

The internet is the most powerful tool for consumers ever created. It is also the most powerful
advertising medium ever invented. Failure to take advantage of it is the biggest mistake your
manufacturing firm can make. The internet should be the center of any manufacturing marketing
strategy. It’s not only the most effective form of marketing. It’s low cost and requires very little effort
from you or your overworked staff.

Industrial Marketing Strategies: Targeting the Right Clients

One the biggest advantages of online marketing is the volume of marketing research data. Before
we target a specific market, we so exhaustive research to discover not only the sheer number of
people searching for the industrial or manufacturing products or services you sell, but the likelihood
of those people to actually purchase them. We use data gathered from billions of searches
performed on search engines to discover what search phrases these people use to find
products/services you sell. Once we find your firm’s most responsive customer and the terms they
use to search, we craft your web site around the goal of attracting these customers to your site, and
once there, convincing them to contact you.

Industrial Marketing Strategy: Sticking to The Plan

The secret of success for industrial internet marketing comes down to three things: Research,
Focus, and Consistency of Message. These should be the focus of any industrial marketing strategy
because doing these three things well will likely make you the online authority in your company’s
industry. The first step in the strategy is to convince the search engines that your web site is the best
place on the internet for information. Second, convince the online visitors that the search engines
send you that you’re the best company to provide that particular product or service to them. The job,
in essence, is the same, since search engines are constantly evolving into better mirroring the
behavior of humans. So the focus should be on attracting customers at the same time as attracting
search engines.

Of course there are some tricks to the trade you need to follow.

And that’s where we come in. Just because you know how to create or service industrial products
doesn’t mean you know how to successfully market them online. The key to the entire strategy is to
get noticed by the search engines. And without specific in-depth knowledge of search engine
optimization techniques, the whole plan falls apart. The truth is: no search engine ranking equals no
traffic. And no traffic equals no online sales. We are experts in all phases of internet marketing and
can implement an industrial marketing strategy that works to improve your firm’s bottom line.

Industrial Marketing Advisers: Your Strategic Guide To Greater Sales

We’ve helped many firms dramatically expand their sales in a variety of industrial and manufacturing
industries. Our industrial marketing strategies have helped firms reach the top positions on search
engines for their industry. And we can help your manufacturing product or service firm do the same.
Fill out the form at the top of the page to get a free no-obligation consultation of what the potential is
for your firm’s particular niche and how much it will cost to become an online authority in your
particular industry.

Industrial marketing (or business to business marketing) is the marketing of goods and services by
one business to another. Industrial goods are those an industry uses to produce an end product from one
or more raw materials.

buying techniques

techniques, tips and rules for professional buyers,

purchasing and supplies management - a strategic
approach to buying
Effective purchasing management and professional buying works better when
a good strategic framework exists. Commonly, relationships between suppliers
and customers are driven by personalities, or the needs of the moment,
whereas relationships and purchasing strategy should ideally be based on a
combination of factors reflecting the nature of each purchasing area,
including: risk, complexity, value, the market and basic matters of supply and
demand. This simple article explains some of the principles, techniques and
guidelines for buying, and is provided by Christopher Barrat, a writer on the
subject of professional buying, whose contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
Bear in mind also that when buying anything you should be aware of the
principles and techniques ofeffective negotiation. It is likely that the person
selling to you will be using them, so even if you do not wish to adopt the
approach and methods concerned, it's as well that you be able to recognise
the tactics.

1. check you know where your purchase is positioned

Every buyer wants the maximum choice of compliant suppliers. This is a rare
occurrence. Buying is often involved late, given specifications that are too
tight, or not enough information to allow flexibility. The classic 'power matrix'
always helps to assess how to engage suppliers:

buying relationships matrix

low item value, product high item value, product complexity,
complexity, buyer strength buyer strength

highmark Critical yet infrequentcontr Develop and maintain strategic

et act negotiations, which is the alliances or partnerships with
complexit challenge. sustainable high-quality strategic
y, risk, suppliers.
supplier Can be difficult to attract and
strength maintain priority and attention Ongoing collaboration and review
from suppliers, so buyers are essential.
need to find ways to
maximise Relationships are likely to be more
theappeal and interest for important than contracts.
the supplier.
Multiple relationships between
Buyers therefore need to buyer and seller organizations are
becreative, pragmatic and likely to be very beneficial, and
 should be encouraged and enabled
adaptable, so as to find
between as many counterpart levels
ways of increasing the appeal
and functions as necessary to
and priority for the supplier.
attain mutual understanding of
operational issues and implications
The likelihood is
for both sides.
that contractswill be more
important than relationships,
Investment in 'coaching'
due to the difficulty in
suppliers to improve their strategic
sustaining senior level interest
partnering capabilities can be
from the supplier.
worthwhile.

Often
involves 'commoditised' Buyers have extensive
products and services. choice because of the number of
suppliers available and the
Generally try to automate competition between them.
lowmarke
arrangements and
t
processes, so as to reduce Buyers can exercise volume
complexit
transaction costs, variability leverage to get the best deals.
y, risk,
and amount of time and effort
supplier
required to maintain supply More aggressive buying
strength
and renegotiations. tactics are acceptable and you
should swap between the many
Establish efficient undifferentiated yet adequate
processes. Minimise time suppliers.
and activity for both sides.

The important step is to remember that even if you have little information, it
doesn't actually effect where the real market pressures are. In other words let
the market decide their position, not your lack of knowledge.
2. get involved with your sales people

Buying is a critical function. Despite this for many years it has been regarded
somewhat as a second class citizen in the commercial rankings. If, as a buyer,
you can get involved with your own sales people this will make a difference.
Firstly you could consider running training courses for them. Secondly see if
they can get you to one of their key customers to talk to their buyers - it
establishes good relations and can facilitate product development.

3. segment your staff

Buying covers a very wide spectrum. Strategic sourcing at one end, and
invoice entering at the other. This is a broad skill set, and not all buyers can
do both. If you want to develop your buyers skills then start by really
checking who is capable, and or willing. Some of your best staff may not
actually want to be developed into strategic relationship managers. If you
need to sell your department better internally - then pick your best presenter
to do this, not simply the buyer who deals with that group.

4. repetition is the key to supplier measurement

There are probably more supplier measurement processes than there are
suppliers. Everyone is constantly inventing and re-inventing some set of magic
criteria that will measure supplier performance, and now of course the trend
is to make it all 'e-capable' and self managing. Don't get tempted down this
path. All of the processes do basically the same thing - ie., get a series of
aspects of supply and give you some sort of rating on a scale between 'hero'
and 'plonker'. The key to success is to stick with the same simple measure -
and do it over time. It is by definition going to be a relative movement that
you want to see, not an absolute one. Only if you repeat the same process
time and time again is this possible.
5. supplier rationalization - an ends or a means?

Any self respecting buyer has gone through some sort of supplier
rationalization programme. It probably makes up one of your objectives and
probably has a firm number - eg 'reduce supplier base to 300 suppliers'.
Beware these sorts of targets - why 300? Why not 307 or 289? The issues is
that this target loses sight of the reason for reduction - ie., you want to
simplify processes, increase supplier dependency and therefore reduce costs.
However everyone also knows that if you reduce too far you become locked
into certain suppliers and prices can rise. What is more if you are going to go
down an 'e-auction' route your first step may well be to increase the amount
of suppliers. Rather than set an arbitrary number for suppliers, focus on the
outcome - reducing costs - and see if this one particular tool is useful or not.

6. price versus cost - understanding and calculating actual total cost

Price is different from cost. The terms are often interchanged in business,
which can lead to confusion in negotiations, and wrong decisions based on
'false economy'. The key rule is that 'price' is only one of the elements that
makes up 'cost'. There are many other factors to consider and factor into the
overall value judgement, and whether one proposition or supply arrangement
is truly better than another.

actual total cost

price = basic cost of product or service £/$

value = cost of quality (including maintenance, disposal, and costs

£/$
relating to environmental and corporate social responsibility factors)

transaction = cost of acquisition (including buying resources,

effort, time, payment terms, change management, training related to £/$
implementation)
actual total cost £/$

See the Actual Total Cost diagram in MSPowerpoint or as an Acrobat pdf.

The price is the label on the packet, or the basic price of the product or
service, but it is no indication of true value or cost. For example, a chair has
a price tag on it of £10 or $20. The value however, is related to useable
benefits that the chair gives, and the cost implications of using it for its
intended purpose. It may be a very cheaply-made chair, in which case if its
role is just to last one season in a rented holiday flat and then be thrown
away, then that is fine. If however the chair is required for visitors in the
reception of high quality business, then its style, comfort and durability are
important required features, and therefore form a real part of its value (or not
as the case may be). So in this instance a chair is likely to warrant a relatively
high 'price' in order to provide the necessary value and benefits, which
ultimately produce a significantly lower 'actual total cost' than paying a low
price for an inferior product which fails to perform, endure, give a suitable
impression, etc. The CEO of a potential $20m client who sits in a $20
reception chair might decide after all that he doesn't want to place his
business with a company who put such a low value on its visitors. What's the
actual total cost of the $20 chair then?...
NB the term 'added value' is used a lot in business today. Often it is just a
smokescreen for a price increase so be aware. To really add value any
feature should have some real and tangible effect on the longer term
use/replacement value/cost of transaction/reputation for the buyer's business.
When confronted with claims of added value, ask, 'exactly what is the the
added value?' By the same token, if you use the term 'added value' when
selling to a buyer, make sure you can demonstrate it.
The cost of the transaction is what it actually costs your organization to do
the deal (and also to review it and renegotiate it in months and years to
come). Costs of transaction are regularly overlooked - by buyers and sellers
alike, and everyone else who thinks that selling and buying are all about
price. For example professional buyers often receive suggestions from users
or staff who say they can buy cheaper copier paper from their local discount
store. They ignore the cost of the transaction - that to purchase the
cheaper paper from a local store involves someone spending time to go there,
with cost of travel, the time to complete and fulfil an expense claim - all of
which mean the cost of the transaction far outweighs any initially apparent
'price' savings.
Consider also the cost of change, implementation and training. These are also
costs of the transaction, and can be enormous - in some cases greater than
the basic price of the product or service. IT hardware and software are
notable examples where the costs of executing the transaction through to
implementation can produce frightening implications for costs, and also for
process integrity and continuity.
An increasingly relevant factor is 'total cost of ownership' (TOC or TCO).
Total cost of ownership includes all of the factors above, but will also
consider costs of disposal, and increasingly for all industries, the cost of
reputation - for example the effect that sourcing low priced third-world
goods can have on an organization's reputation - notably its reputation
for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
In summary, whether buying or selling, price is only a part of the actual
total cost. Costs of quality including maintenance, disposal, CSR (corporate
social responsibility) and environmental factors, and costs of the transaction
including buying resources, effort, time, payment terms, and renegotiations
(all largely dictated by the seller’s relationship capabilities) must all be be
considered when assessing or comparing the actual total costs of
propositions, products or services

Job shop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the United Kingdom, "job shop" can also be a colloquialism for a Job Centre.

Job shops are typically small manufacturing systems that handle job production, that is, custom/bespoke or
semi-custom/bespoke manufacturing processes such as small to medium-size customer orders or batch jobs.
Job shops typically move on to different jobs (possibly with different customers) when each job is completed. In
job shops machines are aggregated in shops by the nature of skillsand technological processes involved, each
shop therefore may contain different machines, which gives this production system processing flexibility, since
jobs are not necessarily constrained to a single machine. In computer science the problem of job shop
scheduling is considered strongly NP-hard.
In a job shop product flow is twisted, also notice that in this drawing each shop contains a single machine.

A typical example would be a machine shop, which may make parts for local industrial machinery, farm
machinery and implements, boats and ships, or even batches of specialized components for the aircraft
industry. Other types of common job shops aregrinding, honing, jig-boring, gear manufacturing,
and fabrication shops.

The opposite would be continuous flow manufactures such as textile, steel,food manufacturing and manual
labor.

Advantages[edit]

 High production mix flexibility

 High flexibility in product engineering

 High expansion flexibility (machines are easily added or substituted)

 High production volume elasticity (due to small increments to productive capacity)

 Low obsolescence (machines are typically multipurpose)

 High robustness to machine failures

Compare to transfer line

Disadvantages[edit]

 Very hard scheduling due to high product variability and twisted production flow

 Low capacity utilization

PROCESS MANAGEMENT
 Companies begin the process of organizing operations by setting competitive priorities. That is they
must determine which of the following eight priorities are to be emphasized as competitive advantages:

1. Low-cost operations 2. High performance design

3. Consistent quality 4. Fast delivery time

5. On-time delivery 6. Development speed

7. Product customization 8. Volume flexibility

Although all eight are obviously desirable, it is usually not possible for an operation to perform
significantly better than the competition in more than one or two.

The five key decisions in process management are:

I. Process Choice
II. Vertical Integration
III. Resource Flexibility
IV. Customer Involvement
V. Capital Intensity

These decisions are critical to the success of any organization and must be based on determining the
best was to support the competitive priorities of the enterprise.

PROCESS CHOICE

The first choice typically faced in process management is that of process choice. Manufacturing and
service operations can be characterized as one of the following:

1. Project
2. Job Shop
3. Batch Flow
4. Line Flow
5. Continuous Flow
The nature of these processes are discussed below and summarized in the manufacturing product-
process matrix on page 8.

Project Process. Examples of a project process are building a shopping center, planning a major event,
running a political campaign, putting together a comprehensive training program, constructing a new
hospital, doing management consulting work, or developing a new technology or product. A project
process is characterized by a high degree of job customization, the large scope of each project, and the
release of substantial resources, once a project is completed. A project process lies at the high-
customization, low-volume end of the process-choice continuum. The sequence of operations and the
process involved in each one are unique to each project, creating one-of-a-kind products or services
made specifically to customer order. Although some projects may look similar, each is unique. Firms with
project processes sell themselves on the basis of their capabilities rather than on specific products or
services. Projects tend to be complex, take a long time, and be large. Many interrelated tasks must be
completed, requiring close coordination. Resources needed for a project are assembled and then
released for further use after the project is finished. Projects typically make heavy use of certain skills
and resources at particular stages and then have little use for them the rest of the time. A project
process is based on a flexible flow strategy, with work flows redefined with each new project.

Job Shop Process. Next in the continuum of process choices is the job shop process. Examples are
custom metal processing shop, hospital emergency rooms, custom plastic injection molding shop, or
making customized cabinets. A job shop process creates the flexibility needed to produce a variety of
products or services in significant quantities. Customization is relatively high and volume for any one
product or service is low. However, volumes aren't as low as for a project process, which by definition
doesn't produce in quantity. The work force and equipment are flexible and handle various tasks. As with
a project process, companies choosing a job process often bid for work. Typically, they make products to
order and don't produce them ahead of time. The specific needs of the next customer are unknown, and
the timing of repeat orders from the same customer is unpredictable. Each new order is handled as a
single unit--as a job. A job shop process primarily involves the use flexible flow strategy, with resources
organized around the process. Most jobs have a different sequence of processing steps.

Batch Flow Process. Examples of a batch flow process are scheduling air travel, manufacturing garments,
furniture manufacturing, making components that feed an assembly line, processing mortgage loans,
and manufacturing heavy equipment. A batch flow process differs from the job process with respect to
volume, variety, and quantity. The primary difference is that volumes are higher because the same or
similar products or services are provided repeatedly. Another difference is that a narrower range of
products or services is provided. Variety is achieved more through an assemble-to-order strategy than
the job shop’s make-to-order strategy. Some of the components for the final product or service may be
produced in advance. A third difference is that production lots or customer groups are handled larger
quantities (or batches) than they are with job shop processes. A batch of one product or customer group
is processed, and then production is switched to the next one. Eventually, the first product or service is
produced again Batch flow processes have average or moderate volumes, but variety is still too great to
warrant dedicating substantial resources to each product or service. The flow pattern is jumbled, with
no standard sequence of operations throughout the facility. However, more dominant paths emerge
than at a job shop and some segments of the process have a linear flow.

Line Flow Process. Products created by a line process include automobiles, appliances, personal
computers, and toys. Services based on a line process are fast-food restaurants and cafeterias. A line flow
process lies between the batch and continuous processes, volumes are high, and products or services
are standardized, which allows resources to be organized around a product or service. Materials move
linearly from one operation to the next according to a fixed sequence, with little inventory held between
operations. Each operation performs the same process over and over with little variability in the
products or services provided. Production orders aren't directly linked to customer orders, as is the case
with project and job processes. Manufacturers with line flow processes often follow a make-to-stock
strategy, with standard products held in inventory so that they are ready when a customer places an
order. This use of a line flow process is sometimes called mass production. However the assemble-to-
order strategy and mass customization are other possibilities with line flow processes. Product variety is
possible by careful control of the addition of standard options to the main product or service. The
pacing of production may be either machine-paced or worker-paced.

Continuous Flow Process. Examples are petroleum refineries, chemical plants, and plants making beer,
steel, and processed food items. Firms with such facilities are also referred to as the process industry. An
electric generation plant represents one of the few continuous processes found in the service sector. A
continuous process is the extreme end of high-volume, standardized production with rigid line flows and
tightly linked process segments. Its name derives from how materials move through the process. Usually
one primary material, such as a liquid, gas, wood fibers, or powder, moves without stopping through the
facility. The process often is capital intensive and operated round the clock to maximize utilization and to
avoid expensive shutdowns are start-ups.