Manufacturing
What do you mean by manufacturing?
Manufacturing is the production of goods through the use of labour, machinery, tools and biological or chemical processing or formulation. Manufacturing can either mean transforming raw materials into finished goods on a large scale, or the creation of more complex items by selling basic goods to manufacturers for the production of items such as automobiles, aircraft, or household appliances.
Raw materials are transformed into finished products through manufacturing engineering or the manufacturing process. This process begins with product design and materials selection. The materials are modified during various manufacturing processes to create the finished product.
Modern advanced manufacturing often includes several intermediate processes to create the various components for a finished item, with some manufacturers using the term fabrication. Manufacturing has close connections to the engineering and industrial process design sectors.
History
Manufacturing has existed for centuries and was originally carried out by skilled artisans, sometimes working with assistants, with the skills being passed down through apprenticeships. Manufacturers may have joined guilds who would protect the trade secrets and privileges of these artisans. Alternatively, manufacturing could take place on a less organised scale, often in rural areas, where craftspeople would supplement agricultural subsistence through home-based manufacturing. These manufacturing households were sometimes organised into joined-up enterprises through the putting-out system.
However, this early manufacturing system changed with the introduction of the factory system in Britain at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the late 18th century. This system took advantage of technological advances and used machinery powered by water, steam and, later, electricity allowing for large-scale production.
The assembly line method of manufacture was described by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, which introduced the concept of the division of labour. This meant that different people would each take just one part of a manufacturing process, for example cutting the wire for a pin, to create a more efficient and cost-effective process. Mechanisation and later automation drew on this concept to create highly repeatable manufacturing.
Rather than a single artisan producing an entire product as had occurred for centuries in the past, manufacturing was broken down into separate parts to create the basis for modern manufacture as we know it today.
