Quantity &

Variety
Equipments
Employees

Process Focus

Repetitive Focus

Product Focus

Mass Customization

(Low volume,
high variety)

(Modular)

(High-volume, lowvariety)

(High-volume, highvariety)

Small quantity,
large variety of
products

standardized
product made
from modules

General
broadly skilled

Special
modestly trained

Large quantity,
small variety of
products
Special
less broadly
skilled

Large quantity,
large variety of
products
flexible
Flexible operators

Job Instructions

Many

changes

Few

many

Raw Material

High

JIT procurement

Low

Low

Work in Process

High

JIT inventory

Low

JIT

Movement of
units

Slowly

In hours and days

Swift

Swift

Finished goods
made

To order

To frequent
forecast

Scheduling

Complex

Scheduling based
on building
various models
from a variety of
modules to
forecasts

Fixed & Variable

cost

Fixed costs low,

variable costs
high

Fixed costs
dependent on
flexibility of the
facility

To forecast and
stored

Build-to-order
(BTO)

Simple

Sophisticated

Fixed costs high,

variable costs low

Fixed costs high,

variable costs must
be low