2. an arrangement or assembly
of inter-dependent processes
(activities) that are based on
some logic and function
Production System
Model
an act of either A model is an
manufacturing imitation of a
or mining or real world
growing of system or
goods process.

3. As we may see, Materials is a part of inputs
in a production system.
These may be anything, a finished product
or even a unprocessed “raw material” which
is directly harvested from the earth (these
include: any crop/plant or a part of it, water ,
rock, soil and some times air).

4. Almost all industries require a few
material inputs to produce their desired
product.
An incorrect decision by the materials
manager directly affects the production
process and the finished good.
In the following slides we will discuss this
importance of materials chosen for
production and therefore the importance
of correct materials management by using
the example of a café.

5. The type of material to be
used
Say in a cafe, salt was added to coffee
rather than sugar, the owner would suffer
a loss in the following ways :
a) the cost of salt wasted
b) the cost of other ingredients added to
coffee (as no one would buy salted coffee
and the materials cannot be recovered in
their original form)
c) the cost of running a coffee maker
d) loss of labour time and hence per unit
time wage

6. The quantity of material to be
used
In another café, they added five
tablespoons of sugar instead of one. Even
though the material is right it is too much
!!.
In such a situation also the management
will suffer a loss. This time the loss will be
of
a) the cost of adding the extra 4
tablespoons
b) the cost of other ingredients and of

7. The quality to be used
If the café is renowned for using
imported sugar from Brazil but due to
wrong selection it uses sugar from a
local company which is relatively bad
in quality. The coffee would taste
different and because it was a wrong
selection the whole stock of local
sugar would be wasted .

8. Materials Cost
If the café usually buys sugar which
costs very cheap but due to incorrect
selection decision, the sugar brought
costs very high.
The managers would have to recover it
by rising the price of coffee.
Such a decision can reduce the café’s
competitiveness.

9. Timeliness of materials
As sugar is an important ingredient of
coffee, the shortage of sugar supply
means
a) delay in meeting orders
b) labor lying idle (loss in the form of
per unit time labor)
c) coffee making machine’s
depreciation
d) and incase too much of time is
taken in procurement other materials