What are the two types of product-based layouts? What are their similarities and differences and their advantages and disadvantages compared with other types of layouts and processes?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: A production line is a type of manufacturing process used to produce a narrow range of standard items with identical or highly similar designs. Production lines have several distinct characteristics.
First, they follow a product-based layout, where resources are arranged sequentially according to the steps required to make a product. The various steps are usually linked by some system that moves the items from one step to the next, such as a conveyor belt.
Second, items typically move through the production line at a predetermined pace. At each step in the process, equipment or people have a set amount of time to finish each task. By dividing the manufacturing process into a series of discrete, carefully timed steps, production lines achieve high degrees of equipment and worker specialization, as well as consistent quality and high efficiency.
Production lines are ideally suited to the high-volume production of a single product or of products characterized by similar design attributes, such as size, material, or manufacturing steps.
Production lines have two drawbacks, however. First, high volumes are required to justify the required investment in specialized equipment and labor. Second, lines are inflexible with regard to products that do not fit the design characteristics of the production line. When production volumes are low or product variety is high, other solutions are needed.
Continuous flow processes closely resemble production line processes in that they produce highly standardized products using a tightly linked, paced sequence of steps. The main difference is the form of the product, which usually cannot be broken into discrete units until the very end of the process. The nature of the product tends to make shutdowns and start-ups expensive, which discourages flexibility and encourages product standardization. And the highly technical nature of many continuous flow processes means that specialists are needed to control operations. The only responsibilities of direct laborers might be to load and unload materials and monitor the process. Continuous flow processes also tend to be highly capital-intensive and very inflexible with respect to changes in output levels.