A small company making garden planters has... | Design & Technology: Product Design 9252 | Paper 1 Mock 01 | Technical, designing and making principles

Question 1 Report

A small company making garden planters has received an order ten times larger than any it has handled before.

Explain the changes the company must consider in order to fulfil this order. [5]

Answer

Answer Details

To fulfil an order ten times larger than usual, the company must plan for increased capacity, materials, flow of work, finance and quality.

Check whether existing machines and workshop space can produce the required quantity in time. The firm may need extra shifts or subcontracting if capacity is insufficient. [1]
Order materials in the much larger quantity, agreeing price and delivery dates in advance so production is not stopped by shortages. [1]
Use jigs, templates or simple tooling to make components faster and consistently, rather than relying entirely on individual measuring and marking out. [1]
Plan the production sequence and storage of work in progress so that partly made planters do not block the workshop. [1]
Consider cash flow: materials and additional labour may have to be paid for before the customer pays for the completed order. [1]
Introduce sampling quality checks, because a greater volume can make it easier for defects to be repeated or missed. [1]

Any five explained considerations gain [5].

A small company making garden planters has received an order ten times larger than any it has handled before. Explain the changes the company must consider ...