flow production

System of organizing production so that goods are produced continuously, as on a production line, as opposed to batch production where goods are manufactured in batches, and job production where goods are made specially to order. Flow production tends to be used in capital-intensive industries where there are significant economies of scale to be gained from production line methods of manufacturing.

One of the problems with traditional flow production methods is that they lend themselves best to producing large quantities of standard products. But in an increasingly sophisticated market, consumers demand differentiated products. However, computer-controlled technology now means that it is much easier for a production line to produce relatively small quantities of a particular item.