Batch Operations - Operations Function

Batch systems form an intermediate category, and are the most common. Here, many different products are produced at regular or irregular intervals. One of the distinctive features of such systems in comparison to job-shop systems is that, since orders are repeated from time to time, it becomes economically worthwhile to pre-plan and document the sequence of processing operations, provide special tooling and, perhaps, employ work study techniques. Most operations occur in batches. Because there is a cost to change from one activity to another, we try to ensure that we share the cost of the changeover among as many activities as possible. Do you always shop for one item at a time or do you try to make the journey to the shops economical?