Technology and production
Contents: 7 sections
Mechanisation, automation and what sits between them
Cambridge lists this as a new topic in 0264, so there is no past paper on it to work from. Everything you need is below.
Mechanisation means machines do the physical work but a person operates and controls them. A baker using an electric mixer is still deciding when to stop it.
Automation means the process runs itself, controlled by computers, with a person setting it up and watching rather than doing it. The output does not depend on how tired the operator is, which is why automated output is so consistent.
| Technology | What it does | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Computer-Aided Manufacture (CAM) | Computers control the machinery that cuts, shapes, welds and assembles the product, working from a digital design | Flow and batch production of identical items, often with robot arms on the line |
| 3D printing | Builds a solid object in thin layers straight from a digital file | One-off items, prototypes, spare parts and customised products, because nothing has to be reset between designs |
| Robotics on a production line | Machines carry out repetitive or dangerous tasks at a fixed speed and standard | Heavy, hot or hazardous work, and any task needing exact repetition |
3D printing is the odd one out and is worth understanding properly. Most machinery is expensive to set up and only becomes cheap per unit when it makes thousands of identical things. A 3D printer costs the same to print the tenth different design as the first, so it makes small runs and one-off customer orders affordable in a way job production never was.
Technology in the service sector
Services are made and consumed at the same moment, so their productivity is measured in customers served rather than units produced. Technology raises it in two ways: it shortens each transaction, and it moves part of the work onto the customer.
- Contactless payments take seconds rather than counting cash and giving change, so a queue clears faster with the same number of tills.
- Self-service checkouts and ordering screens let one employee supervise several points of sale.
- Online and mobile banking lets customers do for themselves what a cashier used to do.
- Booking, ticketing and appointment systems take orders overnight with nobody working.
- Handheld scanners and stock systems tell a shop what has sold and what to reorder without anyone counting shelves.
Worked example. A supermarket serves 3600 customers a day with 12 checkout employees.
Labour productivity = 3600 / 12 = 300 customers per employee
It installs self-service checkouts, serves 4200 customers a day and needs 10 employees on the tills.
Labour productivity = 4200 / 10 = 420 customers per employee
Both parts of the improvement are visible: more customers served, and fewer people serving them. Answers that mention only one of the two are giving away half the analysis.
Advantages and disadvantages for the business
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Fewer employees needed, so the wage bill falls | High cost to buy and install, which increases cash outflows at the moment the business can least afford it |
| Increased productivity, so the cost per unit falls | Becomes outdated quickly, so it has to be replaced again to stay competitive |
| Increased output from the same site, so larger orders can be accepted | More skilled workers are needed to run and maintain it, and skilled workers cost more |
| Safer working conditions, because machines take the dangerous tasks, so fewer injuries and less time lost | Retraining costs money and takes employees off the job while it happens |
| Better and more consistent quality, so fewer faulty items and a higher price can be charged | Demotivated employees, which lowers efficiency and raises absenteeism |
| Machines can run for longer hours without breaks | A breakdown stops everything, and redundancy payments may be due |
Two of these are usually left half-finished. "Fewer employees needed" only becomes an advantage once the answer reaches the wage saving. "It is expensive" only becomes a disadvantage once the answer reaches the cash outflow, or says what the money spent is no longer available for.
Advantages and disadvantages for employees
The specimen paper treats the effect on employees as a separate list from the effect on the business, so prepare it separately.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Dangerous, heavy and dirty tasks are done by machines, so the job is safer | Jobs are lost, and machines most often replace the least skilled workers first |
| New skills learned, which raise the employee's value and pay | Deskilling: the interesting part of the job moves into the machine |
| Repetitive, tiring work is removed | Watching a machine can be more boring than the work it replaced |
| Better working conditions, and often shorter or more flexible hours | Retraining is required whether or not the employee wants it, and some will not manage it |
| Employees who stay may be paid more, because they are more productive | Job insecurity, which demotivates people long before any job is actually cut |
Building the eight-mark answer
The 0264 specimen Paper 1 gives a gold mining business with 6 mines and 3000 employees, and asks whether the advantages of introducing new technology are greater than the disadvantages, for 8 marks. The marks come as up to 2 for the points, up to 2 for applying them to that business, up to 2 for developing them, and up to 2 for a justified decision.
That structure tells you what to write. Take one advantage and one disadvantage, and run each as a chain rather than a list:
Advantage: fewer employees are needed [k], and with 3000 of them on the payroll [app] the saving on wages is large [an].
Disadvantage: the technology is expensive to buy [k] for a business that has to equip 6 mines [app], which increases cash outflows [an].
Then the decision, which is where most answers collapse. Repeating either chain earns nothing. Say which side wins for this business and why: whether it can afford the initial cost at all, how long before the wage saving pays it back, whether the money saved on wages simply reappears as retraining cost.
Application means a reference that changes the point, not a name. "The business should buy the machines" is not application. "It exports 80 per cent of its gold, so falling behind on technology costs it customers abroad" is.
Common mistakes
- Treating mechanisation and automation as the same thing.
- Describing CAM as design software. It controls the machines that make the product.
- Saying 3D printing is cheap for mass production. Its advantage is small runs and one-offs.
- Answering a service sector question with factory examples. A shop does not have a production line.
- Writing "fewer employees are needed" and stopping there, without the wage saving.
- Listing the cost of technology as a disadvantage without saying what the cash outflow prevents the business doing.
- Giving the effects on the business when the question asked about employees, or the reverse.
- Assuming technology always improves quality. It improves consistency, and only if it is set up and maintained properly.
- Ending with "there are advantages and disadvantages", which scores nothing for evaluation.
What the syllabus asks for on this topicSyllabus points
Syllabus points
- Explain how technology is changing production methods through automation and mechanisation, including Computer-Aided Manufacture and 3D printing.
- Explain how technology is improving productivity in the service sector, including contactless payments.
- Give the advantages and disadvantages of changes in technology for businesses.
- Give the advantages and disadvantages of changes in technology for employees.
Related CIE 0264 Business topics
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