Manufacturing operations
Manufacturing operations
*
Does the market research
show demand for this product?
Language Focus: Pronunciation
NB! In the English Language stress is morphologically important. It can differentiate between nouns and verbs, when the spelling is the same. Study the table below.
Nouns (first syllable) |
Verbs (second syllable) |
-‘transport |
-trans’port |
-‘import |
-im’port |
-‘export |
-ex’port |
-‘abstract |
-ab’stract |
-‘process |
-pro’cess |
-‘subject |
-sub’ject |
-‘increase |
-in’crease |
-‘object |
-ob’ject |
-‘decrease |
-de’crease |
- ‘produce |
-pro’duce |
Listen to the sentences and define what part of speech the following words are. Put a tick (√) in the appropriate column. The first one is done for you.
-
Noun
Verb
1. increase
√
2. process
3. increase
4. abstract
5. subject
6. transport
7. abstract
8. export
9. transport
10. decrease
11. import
12. object
Language Focus: Grammar
Look at the following effects and think of possible causes. Use Conditional Constructions, as in the example.
1. …?…?…?… => The manager failed in planning. If he had followed the advice to cooperate with logistics specialist, he wouldn’t have failed in planning.
2. …?...?...?... => It is hard to implement the plan even from the first stage.
3. …?...?...?... => Several delays will follow without paying.
4. …?...?...?... => The director didn’t manage to write a strategically important plan for the company.
5. …?...?...?... => They will have interest losses.
6. …?...?...?... => The owners might refuse to prolong the warehouse rent.
7. …?...?...?... => The suppliers do not deliver goods in time.
Consider the following situations. Ask your partner what he/she what would you do if…’ . Think of possible decisions, write if-sentences. Study the example.
1. Your partner can’t get retail stores to stock your new product.
Q.: What would you do if… you couldn’t get retail stores to stock your new product?
A.: If I couldn’t get retail stores to stock our new product, I would offer it on a sale.
2. Your partner’s only supplier is about to go bankrupt.
Q.:
A.:
3
.
Your partner wants to maintain his profit level with rising labour
costs.
Q.:
A.:
4. Your partner’s company has never had unsold goods stored in the warehouse.
Q.:
A.:
5. Perhaps, someone in your partner’s company is passing on information to the rivals.
Q.:
A.:
Imagine that you are in these situations. For each situation, write a sentence, beginning with ‘I wish’ and an ‘–if sentence’. The first one is done for you.
1. You bought your partner’s company out and consequently took on all his debts.
I wish I hadn’t bought his company out. / I wish I didn’t have debts now.
If I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t have taken on all their debts.
2. You started to sell your new product online. As you don’t know much about e-commerce, you had to spend a pretty sum of money on the internet specialists.
3. You shifted production to South-East Asia. They accepted a lower salary, but the results left much to be desired.
4. You didn’t want to sell old product off, so now you don’t have space for the new one.
5. You didn’t restrict access to important files. Now the rivals use the technologies you invented.
6. You used unsuitable packaging, so most of your goods were damaged while shipping.
7. You didn’t established the right cost, so the customers refused to buy it.
Reading 2
Look at the title of the text. Guess which of the following points the article covers. Explain your choice.
Producing
Warehousing
Transportation
Communication
Computerizing
Engineering
Packaging
…
Skim the text and see if you were right. Expand the list of the topics.
Four sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences A-E below the one that fits each gap 1-4. There is one extra sentence you don’t need to use.
Today SCM is aimed at integrating the extended supply chain, connecting customers at one end and suppliers at the other making it a highly complex structure.
A simplified supply chain is used when we need to bring a product to the customer rapidly and reliably.
The concept of Supply Chain Management has been evolving over the past many years, but the scope of SCM has grown manifold during the decade only.
The shape that SCM will step by step take in the future greatly depends on the dynamics of business and macro economics.
With growth as their top most priority, companies are concentrating their focus on supply chain management.
In the text, find the following words. Work out their meanings.