BBC Working Lunch Page

BBC A Very British History (Raleigh)

Raleigh's Home Page

Raleigh's Bike Selector Page

Raleigh's Accessories for sale

Raleigh Bicycles Worksheet

Go to (link also on left of page)

Scroll down to "A Very British history" near the bottom and click on the link to go there: or use the link on the left of this page.

Answer the following questions

1 What is Raleigh's main product? How many units do they make a year?

2 What other products do they make?

3 Who owns Raleigh?

4 Raleigh uses batch production methods to make their main product: what is meant by batch production? Describe how batch production works and say why you think the batch production system is the most appropriate for Raleigh.

You may need to search other sites/links for the answers to the questions above.

5 What does the reporter mean by the following statement? "Mick's lived out his working career against a backdrop painted with the decline of British industry."

6 How many people used to work at Raleigh and how many work there now?

7 What is "the shopfloor"?

8 In terms of production organisation, what is a "shift"?

9 We are given a clue in the BBC articles that Raleigh production processes may be complex: explain how we know that the production processes may be complex.

10 Explain what the reporter means by "... despite relentless competition from the Far East."

11 Why does the reporter say "For other workers at Raleigh the future isn't so clear"?

12 Why do you think Raleigh has done the following? "The company has sold its site to Nottingham University and is planning to move further out of the city and possibly even take on more workers."

13 Raleigh is expecting a "seasonal boom in sales" explain what is meant by that phrase.

14 Raleigh's web address is on the left hand side of this page: go there are discover how they have developed the bicycle from their early days at the end of the 19th century to today.
Summarise the development of the bicycle in one or two paragraphs.

15 Find the page on the Raleigh site that demonstrates the Ollie and Molly ranges of bikes and briefly discuss the marketing strategy behind them.

16 What do you think of the layout of the Ollie and Molly web page? Think in terms of the readability and visual impact of the page.

17 Go to Raleigh's accessories for sale page (link on the left) and discuss the products you see there: what have they included and why? What would you add to the list of accessories if you worked for Raleigh?

30 September 2001

Molly

Ollie