**1. Introduction**

The three main production methods are mass production (also known as flow production or continuous production), job production and batch production. Job production is custom work characteristic of craft production. Batch production makes specified groups or amounts of products so that changes in material or detail can happen between batches. Very small batch sizes are characteristic of mass customization.

Craft production dominated manufacturing prior to the mid-nineteenth century. Competitive priorities included cost and quality with low volume output, agility and individualised products. Craft, however, became unable to satisfy growing market demand, lost connection with industrial progress, and could not compete as identity and local uniqueness fell out of favour with the rise of low-cost mass production [1].

The first machine tools for mass production were developed in Britain in the mid-eighteenth century. These included precision lathes and measuring instruments such as the bench micrometre. Machine tool technology made it possible to have interchangeable parts, and this enabled mass production. The concept of mass production was refined by Henry Ford in the early twentieth century with the introduction of the moving belt assembly line. Mass production uses special-purpose machines for efficient high-volume production at the expense of flexibility [2].

The term 'mass customization' was introduced as 'companies try to reach the same large segment of customers in the market but by treating them individually like a customized market' [3]. The main characteristics of mass customization are variety that meets customer needs with prices comparable to mass production [4, 5].

Mass customization aims to provide personalised products in an industrial environment. With the introduction of Industry 4.0, mass customization is gaining popularity. Big data applications may provide insight into customer preferences and optimise current manufacturing configurations [6]. However, mass customization is associated with additional costs and end-of-life issues when compared to mass production.

Direct digital manufacturing (DDM) combines product modelling and manufacturing technology to eliminate the need for tooling as digital models are converted directly into physical objects [7]. The exploitation of DDM for mass production or mass customization is only just starting to be explored [8]. The new manufacturing paradigm of DDM comes with sustainability concerns that have not been fully investigated.

Industry 4.0 consists of four design principles: interconnection, information transparency, technical assistance and decentralised decisions. The Industry 4.0 production innovations that will be investigated are cobots (physical assistant systems), machine-to-machine communication (M2M), radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology, quick response (QR) codes, augmented reality, mobile devices, condition monitoring/predictive maintenance, production based on the pull principle, intelligent resource management connecting machines and plants, and localised sourcing of parts.

This chapter connects Industry 4.0 innovations with mass production, mass customization and DDM to optimise their sustainability in the environmental, social and economic dimensions. A literature review of mass production, mass customization and DDM is followed by analysis of Industry 4.0 innovations using manufacturer sustainability needs hierarchies. Value analysis is used to confirm the results. Manufacturers may use these results to strategically select Industry 4.0 innovations which complement their production for improved sustainability.

## **2. Mass production characteristics**

#### **2.1 Economics**

Mass production during the Industrial Revolution brought highly automated factories capable of producing large quantities of products. Cost was reduced, but this type of production required a high degree of standardisation. Consumers had to be willing to purchase the same product – for viability, mass production requires mass consumption. Products and the demand for products was not synchronised and consumers had little influence on changes to design. Mass production in the original Fordist sense has largely been replaced by leaner and more flexible systems.

Mass production is both capital intensive and energy intensive. Mass production is based on economies of scale so that capitalization (using financing to purchase equipment which will increase capacity) is almost always the more profitable approach. Equipment is usually the largest fixed cost asset. The goal is to reduce overheads in the cost of production.

**65**

*A Sustainability Assessment of Smart Innovations for Mass Production, Mass Customisation…*

Mass production systems are difficult to restructure and lack mobility to respond to changes in consumer demand. Classical material requirements planning (MRP) based production is a 'push' system that schedules the jobs in advance for work centres that push the completed jobs to succeeding work centres. Work in progress (WIP) queues and stock levels may be high and long delays often occur as this approach does not take into account the workload of the next work centre. This may be contrasted with just in time (JIT) which uses a 'pull' approach in which the next job is requested from the preceding work centre only when work is finished so that queues and WIP are greatly eliminated. Elements of JIT and MRP may be

Process manufacturing in industries such as chemicals and petrochemicals, gas processing, power generation or water and wastewater [9] uses two basic types of production: continuous and batch [10]. Discrete manufacturing produces distinct items such as units of piece goods, fluids and pasty products or bulk materials which are processed and packaged. The two basic types of production in discrete manufac-

Process industries are usually large-scale operations with general purpose equipment, high levels of automation and system complexity, low speed processes and high product value. Discrete processing is small- to medium-scale with dedicated machines, medium to high levels of automation and low system complexity, very

The items of significant cost involved in resource consumption in automated manufacturing systems are: machines and cutting tool holders, computer systems, robot and automated guided vehicles (AGV) systems, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), fixed assets, externally provided resources, direct and indirect labour, insurance and indirect material, cutting tools and fixtures, direct energy consumption, direct material, and other services such as maintenance, process planning, industrial engineering activities, accounting and finance, administration, and marketing [11]. Where the manufacturing environment is relatively unreliable due to equipment failure, interruptions in work feeding, missing cutting tools, operator absence, etc., push systems may provide better lead time and

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Frederick W. Taylor introduced scientific management to measure the output of workers [12]. The main goal of scientific management was to improve economic efficiency, particularly labour productivity. Monotony of labour may lead to high staff turnover. Taylor's work focused on the needs of the process as opposed to individual worker's needs which led to worker unrest, turnover and social conflict. In modern industry, analysis methods based on Rasmussen's abstraction hierarchy [13] may be used for work

There are fewer manufacturing jobs in post-industrial economies. Health and safety as well as quality are important considerations in modern manufacturing. In process industries the focus on safety is very high and severe accidents are rare whereas in discrete processing most faults and abnormal situations have only economic consequences and stoppages occur regularly. As a consequence of the different characteristics of the technical systems of process and discrete manufacturing, there are different demands on operators [14]. For example, discrete processing does not require highly educated operators, utilises migrant or seasonal workers with few permanent positions, and tasks are highly repetitive. Repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a common and serious health problem. In contrast, process

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88897*

combined as 'mixed' systems.

turing are continuous and intermittent.

high-speed processes and low product value.

throughput time performance [11].

domain analysis to support operators.

**2.2 Workforce**

#### *A Sustainability Assessment of Smart Innovations for Mass Production, Mass Customisation… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88897*

Mass production systems are difficult to restructure and lack mobility to respond to changes in consumer demand. Classical material requirements planning (MRP) based production is a 'push' system that schedules the jobs in advance for work centres that push the completed jobs to succeeding work centres. Work in progress (WIP) queues and stock levels may be high and long delays often occur as this approach does not take into account the workload of the next work centre. This may be contrasted with just in time (JIT) which uses a 'pull' approach in which the next job is requested from the preceding work centre only when work is finished so that queues and WIP are greatly eliminated. Elements of JIT and MRP may be combined as 'mixed' systems.

Process manufacturing in industries such as chemicals and petrochemicals, gas processing, power generation or water and wastewater [9] uses two basic types of production: continuous and batch [10]. Discrete manufacturing produces distinct items such as units of piece goods, fluids and pasty products or bulk materials which are processed and packaged. The two basic types of production in discrete manufacturing are continuous and intermittent.

Process industries are usually large-scale operations with general purpose equipment, high levels of automation and system complexity, low speed processes and high product value. Discrete processing is small- to medium-scale with dedicated machines, medium to high levels of automation and low system complexity, very high-speed processes and low product value.

The items of significant cost involved in resource consumption in automated manufacturing systems are: machines and cutting tool holders, computer systems, robot and automated guided vehicles (AGV) systems, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), fixed assets, externally provided resources, direct and indirect labour, insurance and indirect material, cutting tools and fixtures, direct energy consumption, direct material, and other services such as maintenance, process planning, industrial engineering activities, accounting and finance, administration, and marketing [11]. Where the manufacturing environment is relatively unreliable due to equipment failure, interruptions in work feeding, missing cutting tools, operator absence, etc., push systems may provide better lead time and throughput time performance [11].

### **2.2 Workforce**

*Mass Production Processes*

production.

been fully investigated.

production was refined by Henry Ford in the early twentieth century with the introduction of the moving belt assembly line. Mass production uses special-purpose machines for efficient high-volume production at the expense of flexibility [2]. The term 'mass customization' was introduced as 'companies try to reach the same large segment of customers in the market but by treating them individually like a customized market' [3]. The main characteristics of mass customization are variety

that meets customer needs with prices comparable to mass production [4, 5]. Mass customization aims to provide personalised products in an industrial environment. With the introduction of Industry 4.0, mass customization is gaining popularity. Big data applications may provide insight into customer preferences and optimise current manufacturing configurations [6]. However, mass customization is associated with additional costs and end-of-life issues when compared to mass

Direct digital manufacturing (DDM) combines product modelling and manufacturing technology to eliminate the need for tooling as digital models are converted directly into physical objects [7]. The exploitation of DDM for mass production or mass customization is only just starting to be explored [8]. The new manufacturing paradigm of DDM comes with sustainability concerns that have not

Industry 4.0 consists of four design principles: interconnection, information transparency, technical assistance and decentralised decisions. The Industry 4.0 production innovations that will be investigated are cobots (physical assistant systems), machine-to-machine communication (M2M), radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology, quick response (QR) codes, augmented reality, mobile devices, condition monitoring/predictive maintenance, production based on the pull principle, intelligent resource management

This chapter connects Industry 4.0 innovations with mass production, mass customization and DDM to optimise their sustainability in the environmental, social and economic dimensions. A literature review of mass production, mass customization and DDM is followed by analysis of Industry 4.0 innovations using manufacturer sustainability needs hierarchies. Value analysis is used to confirm the results. Manufacturers may use these results to strategically select Industry 4.0 innovations which complement their production for improved sustainability.

Mass production during the Industrial Revolution brought highly automated factories capable of producing large quantities of products. Cost was reduced, but this type of production required a high degree of standardisation. Consumers had to be willing to purchase the same product – for viability, mass production requires mass consumption. Products and the demand for products was not synchronised and consumers had little influence on changes to design. Mass production in the original Fordist sense has largely been replaced by leaner and

Mass production is both capital intensive and energy intensive. Mass production is based on economies of scale so that capitalization (using financing to purchase equipment which will increase capacity) is almost always the more profitable approach. Equipment is usually the largest fixed cost asset. The goal is to reduce

connecting machines and plants, and localised sourcing of parts.

**2. Mass production characteristics**

**2.1 Economics**

more flexible systems.

overheads in the cost of production.

**64**

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Frederick W. Taylor introduced scientific management to measure the output of workers [12]. The main goal of scientific management was to improve economic efficiency, particularly labour productivity. Monotony of labour may lead to high staff turnover. Taylor's work focused on the needs of the process as opposed to individual worker's needs which led to worker unrest, turnover and social conflict. In modern industry, analysis methods based on Rasmussen's abstraction hierarchy [13] may be used for work domain analysis to support operators.

There are fewer manufacturing jobs in post-industrial economies. Health and safety as well as quality are important considerations in modern manufacturing. In process industries the focus on safety is very high and severe accidents are rare whereas in discrete processing most faults and abnormal situations have only economic consequences and stoppages occur regularly. As a consequence of the different characteristics of the technical systems of process and discrete manufacturing, there are different demands on operators [14]. For example, discrete processing does not require highly educated operators, utilises migrant or seasonal workers with few permanent positions, and tasks are highly repetitive. Repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a common and serious health problem. In contrast, process

manufacturing relies on operators with vocational training having an understanding of the process so that proactive measures may be applied to complex interactions in dealing with faults.

Workers in mass production are motivated to focus on functional performance to ensure reliability and efficiency. This may be evaluated quantifiably using measures such as scrap rates [15].

#### **2.3 Environment**

Mass production utilises less resources than mass customization, but may contribute to greater waste as consumer needs may not be completely satisfied. The consumers are generally anonymous and hence it is not possible to track products for recycling or remanufacture. End-of-life (EOL) strategies for products that are recovered are likely to be easier to apply due to the uniformity of the products.
