Lot Size One
Lot Size One (Batch Size One)
Lot size one describes manufacturing individually configured single units with the same industrial efficiency as series production.
Lot Size One: Not to be confused with
Lot size one is NOT the same as classic one-off manufacturing. One-off manufacturing produces unique items, usually manually and on a project basis, while lot size one aims to produce individual variants using the same automated processes as series production.
Batch size fundamentally describes how many units are produced in one run without a changeover (Source 1). Lot size one, as the extreme case, requires that every single unit can be individually configured, for example with its own serial number or custom features, without the manufacturing process falling back to manual one-off production.
This requirement is especially pronounced in the Watches & Precision Industry, where every piece needs its own individual number and often its own precious-metal tracking.
Related terms
Sources for Lot Size One
- Wikipedia, "Batch production" ↗