Boutique manufacturing is a method used for the custom production of certain products in limited quantities by hand or with a restricted level of automation. Products produced this way often include ceramics, furniture, amplifiers, yachts, boats, leather goods or watches and jewellery among others. In industrial countries, boutique manufacturing is being selected generally for high class goods in upper price levels and only for single products or small batches.

Benefits and disadvantages

The key advantages of boutique manufacturing in comparison to traditional factory manufacturing with batch fabrication, large or mass production are as follows:

• low investment in factory automation
• high flexibility during manufacturing
• quick alteration of product types produced on every workplace or production line
• supports build to order without the necessity of using many pre-assembled components; creation of value caused by assembly takes place mainly at the end of the production flow.
• allows an unachieved level of product individualization

Consequently, boutique manufacturing closes the gap between piece production and small batch/low volume production. The workflow organization of a boutique manufacturing entity can be a mixture of both – elements of jobbing or batch production, however involving higher standardization than the first one. Often boutique manufacturing workshop and factories are organized with single workplaces or production cells carrying out a number of subsequent production steps until completion of certain components or even the whole product. Flexibility and variety of products being able to produce in the entity therefore are much higher than with the more standardized method batch production.

However, with this method, manufacturing of larger quantities of unified products is not possible at reasonable costs. Serial fabrication or large production of goods then would be suitable alternative production methods involving higher grades of automation and standardization.

See also

• Manufacturing
  Manufacturing
  Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
  
  
• Methods of production
  Methods of Production
  Production methods fall into three main categories; however, all production methods can be assisted with CAM and CAD equipment .-Job Production and Prototype Production:...
  
  
• Job production
  Job production
  Job production, sometimes called jobbing, involves producing a one-off product for a specific customer. Job production is most often associated with small firms but large firms use job production too...
  
  
• Batch production
  Batch production
  Batch production is a technique used in manufacturing, in which the object in question is created stage by stage over a series of workstations. Batch production is common in bakeries and in the manufacture of sports shoes, pharmaceutical ingredients , inks, paints and adhesives. In the manufacture...
  
  
• Mass production
  Mass production
  Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
  
  
• Just in time
• Lean manufacturing
  Lean manufacturing
  Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination...
  
  
• Production, costs, and pricing
  Production, costs, and pricing
  The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to industrial organization:Industrial organization – describes the behavior of firms in the marketplace with regard to production, pricing, employment and other decisions...