Production cycle

In the course of its economic activities, each enterprise carries out a certain production process, in which a purposeful transformation of materials and raw materials into finished products suitable for further processing or consumption takes place. The production process is always aimed at achieving a minimum production cycle. What is the production cycle?

This term means a full range of all operations performed in the manufacture of products, a period of time from the beginning to the complete end of the production process. Since it occurs in space and time, the production cycle can be measured by the length of the path of the product and all its components, and by the time necessary for the passage of all stages of processing the product. This cycle is the period of the stay of objects of labor (materials, raw materials) in the production process from the very beginning of manufacture to the final release of finished commodity products.

The measurement of this cycle with the help of the path length is carried out from the original workplace, where the processing of the product and all its components began, to the very last. The length of the production cycle is considered not the line, but the area of the room where the equipment, machinery and equipment used for manufacturing the products are placed. Ideal is the situation in which the production cycle is maximally reduced and in which the facilitated communication and transport links workplaces with each other. In other words, the shorter the entire path of production during the production process, the lower the cost of transporting it between operations, the need for areas, and much less time is required for processing it.

The production cycle has its own duration, measured in days, hours and minutes. The enterprises distinguish the cycle of prefabricated units, the cycle of the product as a whole, individual parts and the performance of individual, as well as homogeneous operations.

The production cycle and its structure is one of the important technical and economic indicators of economic activity. On their basis production capacities, terms of output, quantities of work in progress and many other planned production indicators are determined.

The structure of the production cycle consists of the time of execution of the main (processing, assembly, procuring) and auxiliary (control, transport) operations, as well as breaks (interoperational, intercyclical, regime). The execution time of the above basic actions is a technological cycle. During his work on the objects of labor is indirect and direct impact of the workers of the enterprise.

Breaks are divided into 2 groups:

- directly related to the mode of work (non-working shifts and days, inter-shifts for rest, lunch and inter-shift breaks);

- related to the organizational and technical aspects of production (waiting for assembly of parts and components, lack of energy, vehicles, raw materials and materials).

When calculating the production cycle period, only those time costs are taken into account that are not overlapped by technological operations (time for control, transportation of products). Breaks, which are associated with organizational and technical problems when calculating the planned duration of this cycle, do not take into account. When calculating its duration take into account the features of the movements of objects of labor. Usually, one of three types is used: parallel, serial or parallel-serial. It is believed that the production cycle with parallel movement is significantly reduced. Its duration is influenced by economic, organizational and technological factors.