Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation.The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high-tech, but it is most commonly applied to industrial design, in which raw materials from the primary sector are transformed into finished goods on a large scale.[4][5] Human ancestors manufactured objects using stone and other tools long before the emergence of Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago.[6] The earliest methods of stone tool making, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago,[7] with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago.[10] The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the prepared-core technique, where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone.[9] Pressure flaking, in which a wood, bone, or antler punch could be used to shape a stone very finely was developed during the Upper Paleolithic, beginning approximately 40,000 years ago.[11] During the Neolithic period, polished stone tools were manufactured from a variety of hard rocks such as flint, jade, jadeite, and greenstone.[19] The Middle Ages witnessed new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth.Lynn Townsend White Jr. credited the spinning wheel with increasing the supply of rags, which led to cheap paper, which was a factor in the development of printing.[25]: 40 Rapid industrialization first began in Britain, starting with mechanized spinning in the 1780s,[26] with high rates of growth in steam power and iron production occurring after 1800.Innovations developed late in the period, such as the increasing adoption of locomotives, steamboats and steamships, hot blast iron smelting and new technologies, such as the electrical telegraph, were widely introduced in the 1840s and 1850s, were not powerful enough to drive high rates of growth.These innovations included new steel making processes, mass-production, assembly lines, electrical grid systems, the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the use of increasingly advanced machinery in steam-powered factories.[46] Similarly, Elizabeth Haas wrote in 1987 about the delivery of value in manufacturing for customers in terms of "lower prices, greater service responsiveness or higher quality".[47] The theory of "trade offs" has subsequently being debated and questioned,[46] but Skinner wrote in 1992 that at that time "enthusiasm for the concepts of 'manufacturing strategy' [had] been higher", noting that in academic papers, executive courses and case studies, levels of interest were "bursting out all over".These costs are now well known and there is effort to address them by improving efficiency, reducing waste, using industrial symbiosis, and eliminating harmful chemicals.They have compared production and investment in a range of Western and non-Western countries and presented case studies of growth and performance in important individual industries and market-economic sectors.[57][58] On June 26, 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce, commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much in some areas and can no longer rely on the financial sector and consumer spending to drive demand.
Manufacturing (constituency)automobileMachine industryBatch productionJob productionFlow productionLean manufacturingAgile manufacturingSix SigmaISA-88ISA-95IEC 62264productionmachineschemicalbiological processingformulationsecondary sector of the economyhuman activityhandicrafthigh-techindustrial designraw materialsprimary sectorfinished goodshousehold appliancessports equipmentautomobilestertiary industryend usersManufacturing engineeringfinal productproduct designmaterials specificationsemiconductorModern EnglishMiddle FrenchClassical LatinIndustry (archaeology)Prehistoric technologyAncient technologyBronze Age swordNational Archaeological MuseumHomo sapiensstone toolOldowanindustryEthiopiaGreat Rift Valleyhammerstonechoppersscrapershunter-gathererMiddle Paleolithicprepared-core techniquePressure flakingUpper PaleolithicNeolithicstone toolsjadeitegreenstoneprojectilessmeltingarsenical bronzeBronzeBronze AgeIron Agesimple machineswheel and axlepotter's wheelMesopotamiapapyruspotteryRuddingtonMiddle AgesPapermakingEuropeUmayyad conquest of HispaniaLynn Townsend White Jr.blast furnacestocking frameIndustrial RevolutionSecond Industrial RevolutionRoberts LoomUnited Stateshand production methodschemical manufacturingiron productionsteam powerwater powermachine toolsmechanizedfactory systemcapitaltextile industryMechanized textile productionhot blast iron smeltingelectrical telegraphsteel making processesmass-productionassembly lineselectrical gridincandescent light bulbssewing machinesagricultural machineryBell AircraftWheatfield, New YorkElectrificationDC motorAC motorElectric motorsBall BrothersGlass Manufacturing Companymason jarMuncie, Indianaday laborersHenry FordFord Motor Companymilling machineFord Model TTaiichi OhnoqualitydependabilityinnovationWickham Skinneracademic papers