Mechanical engineers sometime get confused about the real meaning of production, manufacturing and machining and relationship among each other. So let us take a look on their boundary and how they are related. In short, production has a vast area and it encompasses manufacturing; while machining is one type of manufacturing processes. Basically, production is a system (usually closed), manufacturing is a group of processes, machining is a process, and turning, milling, drilling, etc. are operations.

Concept of production

Production is the system that converts raw material or scrap to useful product by adding substantial value. This system is usually a close loop that starts with market survey & forecasting and ends with feedback collection & its analysis. It utilizes tangible (such as man, machine, material and money) as well as intangible (such as management planning, forecasted data, legal restrictions, government opportunities, etc.) resources. Various elements and steps that a production system usually consists of are enlisted below. There are various steps which are executed most of the time instead of doing separately, for example maintenance activity.

• Market survey
• Forecasting
• Planning and sequencing
• Purchasing
• Conversion or manufacturing
• Storing and maintaining
• Inspection and Quality control
• Packaging and delivery
• Feedback collection and analysis.

Concept of manufacturing

Manufacturing is basically a subset or part of production. It basically refers to a group of processes that actually convert raw material or scrap to useful product as per requirement. Although it directly takes only tangible types of input (such as man, machine, material and money), indirectly it takes help of various decisive parameters regarding planning and sequencing. Manufacturing step may consist of various processes, such as:

• Casting
• Forming
• Joining
• Machining
• Advanced Machining Processes (AMPs)
• Powder Metallurgy
• Surface working and coating
• Rapid Prototyping.

It is to be noted that, there is no such process named Manufacturing. The term manufacturing indicates a cluster of processes that includes casting, forming, joining, machining, powder metallurgy, etc. So neither manufacturing nor production itself is a process. However, machining is one process. Again, manufacturing, production, and machining—all three take both tangible and intangible input (either directly or indirectly) because nothing is possible without planning, which is intangible.

What is machining? 

Machining is one of the secondary manufacturing processes by which excess material is removed (by shearing) from a preformed blank in the form of small sharp chips using a wedge shaped cutting tool in order to get product having desired shape, size and tolerance. For example, turning, drilling, facing, slotting, milling, etc. are various machining operations. Therefore, machining process is one subset of manufacturing.

Therefore, in conclusion, we may say Machining is a subset of Manufacturing, which itself is a subset of Production.

Production ⊇ Manufacturing ⊇ Machining