CHAPTER 8 - PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
1. Define process technology.
- Process technology is a various systems needed to ensure industrial plants operate smoothly to
produce goods and services.
- It is the machines, equipment, and devices that create and/or deliver products and services.
2. What the stages of process technology management?
Process Technology Management has three stages:
Stage 1- Understand the process technology
Stage 2- Evaluate the process
Stage 3- Implement the process technology
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using industrial robots in production?
The advantages of industrial robots in production include:
- Increased efficiency
- Improve Quality
- Increase Productivity
- Longer Working hours etc.
The disadvantages include:
- High investment cost
- Ongoing Costs
- Job loss
4. What are the types of process technology?
- Different types of process technology is by what the technology actually processes – materials,
information or customers.
The types of process technology are the following:
a. material- processing technologies
b. information- processing technology
c. customer- processing technology
5. What is 3D printing? Explain its implications.
- A 3D printer produces a 3D object by laying down layer upon layer of material until the final form is
obtained. This is why it is also known as ‘additive manufacturing’, because, starting from nothing,
successive layers are built up. This contrasts with ‘subtractive manufacturing’ that starts with more
material than an item requires and reduces it through cutting, drilling, squeezing and otherwise
removing material until the finished form is reached. The process starts with a computer-based design
which is ‘digitally deconstructed’ by software that takes a series of virtual digital slices through the
design, details of which are sent to the 3D printer. Different materials can be used to build up the object
from plastic to metals (and even food) and in various sizes limited only by the capacity of the printer.
Implications:
The obvious implication of 3D printing is the effect it has on the economics of production, especially the
economics of making small quantities of novel and/or complicated items economically.
6. Explain the use of radio frequency identification in products/ materials.
- Radio frequency identification (RFID)- traces the progress of items through a supply chain means that
during every stage of manufacturing and distribution, storage and sale of each product can be
individually tracked and the information used to co-ordinate supply.
7. What are the aspects of the following which could be affected?
a. information and analysis
- Knowing where things are
- Knowing what is happening
- Knowing what to do
b. automation and control
- Process optimization
- Optimized resource usage
- Fast reactions
8. What are the criteria for evaluating process technologies?
The criteria for evaluating process technologies:
● Does the technology fit the processing task for which it is intended?
● How does the technology improve the operation’s performance?
● Does the technology give an acceptable financial return?
9. What are the three dimensions of process technology?
Three dimensions of process technology:
● Its degree of ‘automation’.
● The capacity of the technology to process work, that is its ‘scale’ or ‘scalability’.
● The extent to which it is integrated with other technologies; that is, its degree of ‘coupling’ or
‘connectivity’.
10. How are process technologies implemented?
- Implementing process technology means organizing all the activities involved in making the technology
work as intended. No matter how potentially beneficial and sophisticated the technology, it remains
only a prospective benefit until it has been implemented successfully. So implementation is an
important part of process technology management.
11. What is technology road-mapping? What are its benefits?
- A technology roadmap is an approach that provides a structure that attempts to assure the alignment
of developments (and investments) in technology, possible future market needs, and the new
development of associated operations capabilities.
Benefits:
It allows technology managers to define their firm’s technological evolution in advance by planning the
timing and relationships between the various elements that are involved in technology planning
The benefits of TRMs are mainly associated with the way they bring together the significant
stakeholders involved in technology strategy and various (and often differing) perspectives they have.
12. How important is customer acceptability in process technologies?
- When an operation’s customers interact with its process technology it is essential to consider the
customer interaction when evaluating it. If customers are to have direct contact with technology, they
must have some idea of how to operate it. Where customers have an active interaction with technology,
the limitations of their understanding of the technology can be the main constraint on its use.
It is one of the things to evaluate because it affects demand and profitability.