Manufacturing

If you are a scientist-and this is especially applicable if you are a research scientist-you may ask why you should care about manufacturing functions. The answer is important to you. If you design a product that cannot be made economically from a manufacturing, financial, or marketing point of view, your company doesn’t have a product and you may not have a job. That should be sufficient motivation to learn about manufacturing. If you are involved in quality control or technical services, you must know how your product was, is, or will be manufactured so that you can work effectively. You should also know what types of processes are run in your plant so that a new product you design can be produced on existing equipment. Even if you have the luxury of designing a product and determining the equipment to be purchased to manufacture it, you should still understand the general aspects of manufacturing.