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Job production, sometimes calledjobbing orone-off production, involves producing custom work, such as a one-off product for a specific customer or a small batch of work in quantities usually less than those of mass-market products. Job production consists of an operator or group of operators to work on a single job and complete it before proceeding to the next similar or different job.^[1] Together withbatch production andmass production (flow production) it is one of the three main production methods.^[2][3]

Job production can be classicalcraft production by small firms (making railings for a specific house, building/repairing a computer for a specific customer, making flower arrangements for a specific wedding etc.), but large firms use job production, too, and the products of job production are ofteninterchangeable, such asmachined parts made by a job shop. Examples include:

• Designing and implementing an advertising campaign
• Auditing the accounts of a largepublic limited company
• Building a new factory
• Installing machinery in a factory
• Machining a batch of parts per aCAD drawing supplied by a customer
• Building the Golden Gate bridge

Fabrication shops andmachine shops whose work is primarily of the job production type are often calledjob shops. The associated people or corporations are sometimes calledjobbers.

Job production is, in essence, manufacturing on a contract basis, and thus it forms a subset of the larger field ofcontract manufacturing. But the latter field also includes, in addition to jobbing, a higher level of outsourcing in which a product-line-owning company entrusts its entire production to a contractor, rather than just outsourcing parts of it.

Key benefits of job production include:

• can provide emergency parts or services, such as quickly making a machine part that would take a long time to acquire otherwise
• can provide parts or services for machinery or systems that are otherwise not available, as when the original supplier no longer supports the product or goes out of business (orphaned)
• work is generally of a high quality
• a high level of customization is possible to meet the customer's exact requirements
• significant flexibility is possible, especially when compared tomass production
• workers can be easily motivated due to the skilled nature of the work they are performing

Disadvantages include:

• higher cost of production
• re-engineering: sometimes engineering drawings or an engineering assessment, including calculations or specifications, needs to be made before the work can be done
• requires the use of specialist labor (compared with the repetitive, low-skilled jobs inmass production)
• slow compared to other methods (batch production andmass production)

There are a number of features that should be implemented in a job production environment, they include:

• Clear definitions ofobjectives should be set.
• Clearly outlineddecision making process.
• Clear list ofspecifications should be set.

• Instant manufacturing
• Just in Time
• Lean manufacturing
• Manufacturing
• Piece work
• Outline of industrial organization

• Methods of production

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