Read the following case study on technological change, then answer the questions which follow
‘Multi-tasking' machines to feed demand for all shapes and sizes in quick time Behind the emergence of ‘multi-tasking' machine tools is the increasing trend among manufacturers towards lean production techniques, in which parts are made in small volumes but at high speed and with more emphasis on using the same families of production equipment for different tasks. Routines of this sort have been imposed on manufacturers as they have tried increasingly to make their parts in more shapes and sizes, to feed the increasing demand by consumers for more variation in the end product, whether this is a car or a mobile phone. A leader in multi-tasking systems is Yamazaki Mask of Japan, one of the world's biggest machine tool makers. Tomohisa Yamazaki, president of the family-owned company, says an increasing proportion of its annual sales of some $1.1bn is being accounted for by such products, which normally sell for between $300,000 and $1m and can carry out up to 500 different types of cutting or shaping operations that previously would have required several different machines. ‘By introducing these machines, our customers can make themselves more competitive, even in high-cost countries,' says Mr Yamazaki. In the past three years, the company has used its multi-tasking machines in its own plants in Japan, replacing previous generations of inflexible automation. In the process, it has saved itself approximately $80m a year by cutting stocks of parts and reducing machining times. While machines that combine turning and milling are by no means new, the performance of the new systems has been increased in recent years by the growing sophistication of the motors and control software machine tools depend on. Complex operations managed by a single machine would not be possible without software that controls the drive motors used in each machining operation and enables individual cutting devices to work - sometimes for just a few seconds - on a particular shaping operation and then stop to allow another cutting system, approaching from a different angle and using a different motor, but part of the same machine, to take over.
Question
1 What are the benefits to a firm from using ‘multi-task' machines?
2 How might these new technologies influence the value chain?