Economies Of Scale Scope Essay

Economies of Scope: An economic theory stating that the average total cost of production decreases as a result of increasing the number of different goods produced. For example, McDonalds can produce both hamburgers and French fries at a lower average cost than what it would cost two separate firms to produce the same goods. This is because McDonalds hamburgers and French fries share the use of food storage, preparation facilities, and so forth during production. Another example is a company such as Proctor & Gamble, which produces hundreds of products from razors to toothpaste. They can afford to hire expensive graphic designers and marketing experts who will use their skills across the product lines. Because the costs are spread out, this lowers the average total cost of production for each product. Economies of scale are the cost advantages that a business can exploit by expanding their scale of production. The effect of economies of scale is to reduce the average (unit) costs of production. Here are some examples of how economies of scale work: Technical economies of scale: Large-scale businesses can afford to invest in expensive and specialist capital machinery. For example, a supermarket chain such as Tesco or Sainsbury’s can invest in technology that improves stock control. It might not, however, be viable or cost-efficient for a small corner shop to buy this technology. Specialisation of the workforce Larger businesses split complex production processes into separate tasks to boost productivity. By specialising in certain tasks or processes, the workforce is able to produce more output in the same time.