Mass production of aeroplanes.
Mass production (also called
flow
production,
repetitive flow production,
series production, or
serial
production) is the production of large amounts of
standardized products, including and especially on
assembly lines. The concepts of mass
production are applied to various kinds of products, from fluids
and particulates handled in bulk (such as food, fuel, chemicals,
and mined minerals) to discrete solid parts (such as fasteners) to
assemblies of such parts (such as household appliances and
automobiles).
Overview
Mass production of assemblies typically uses electric-motor-powered
moving tracks or conveyor belts to move partially complete products
to workers, who perform simple repetitive tasks. It improves on
earlier high-throughput, continuous-flow mass production made
possible by the steam engine.
Mass production of fluid and particulate matter typically involves
pipes with pumps or augers to transfer partially complete product
between vessels.
Mass production is
capital
intensive and energy intensive, as it uses a high proportion of
machinery and energy in relation to workers. It is also usually
automated to the highest extent possible.
With fewer labour costs and a faster rate of production, capital
and energy are increased while total expenditure per unit of
product is decreased. However, the machinery that is needed to set
up a mass production line (such as
robots and
machine presses) is so expensive that
there must be some assurance that the product is to be successful
to attain profits.
One of the descriptions of mass production is that the
craftsmanship is in the
workbench itself,
not the training of the worker; for example, rather than having a
skilled worker measure every dimension of each part of the product
against the plans or the other parts as it is being formed, there
are
jigs and
gauge
blocks that are ready at hand to ensure that the part is made
to fit this set-up. It has already been checked that the finished
part will be to specifications to fit all the other finished parts
- and it will be made more quickly, with no time spent on finishing
the parts to fit one another. This is the specialized capital
required for mass production; each workbench is different and each
set of tools at each workbench limited to those necessary to make
one part. As each of these parts is uniformly and consistently
constructed, interchangeability of components is thus another
hallmark of mass produced goods.
Use of assembly lines in mass production
Robots palletizing food in a
bakery
Mass production systems are usually organized into
assembly lines. The assemblies pass by on a
conveyor, or if they are heavy, hung from an overhead
monorail.
In a factory for a complex product, rather than one assembly line,
there may be many auxiliary assembly lines feeding sub-assemblies
(i.e. car engines or seats) to a backbone "main" assembly line. A
diagram of a typical mass-production factory looks more like the
skeleton of a fish than a single line.
Advantages and disadvantages
The economies of mass production come from several sources. The
primary cause is a reduction of nonproductive effort of all types.
In
craft production, the craftsman
must bustle about a shop, getting parts and assembling them. He
must locate and use many tools many times for varying tasks. In
mass production, each worker repeats one or a few related tasks
that use the same tool to perform identical or near-identical
operations on a stream of products. The exact tool and parts are
always at hand, having been moved down the assembly line
consecutively. The worker spends little or no time retrieving
and/or preparing materials and tools, and so the time taken to
manufacture a product using mass production is shorter than when
using traditional methods.
The probability of human error and variation is also reduced, as
tasks are predominantly carried out by machinery. A reduction in
labour costs, as well as an increased rate of production, enables a
company to produce a larger quantity of one product at a lower cost
than using traditional, non-linear methods.
However, mass production is inflexible because it is difficult to
alter a design or production process after a production line is
implemented. Also, all products produced on one production line
will be identical or very similar, and introducing variety to
satisfy individual tastes is not easy. However, some variety can be
achieved by applying different finishes and decorations at the end
of the production line if necessary.
Vertical integration
Vertical integration is a
business practice that involves gaining complete control over a
product's production, from raw materials to final assembly.
In the age of mass production, this caused shipping and trade
problems in that shipping systems were unable to transport huge
volumes of finished automobiles (in Henry Ford's case) without
causing damage, and also government policies imposed trade barriers
on finished units.
History
Mass production was popularized in the 1910s and 1920s by
Henry Ford's
Ford
Motor Company, which introduced electric motors to the
then-well-known technique of chain or sequential production and, in
the process, began a new era often called the "second industrial
revolution." Ford's contribution to mass production was synthetic
in nature, collating and improving upon existing methods of
sequential production and applying electric power to them,
resulting in extremely-high-throughput, continuous-flow mass
production, making the Model T affordable and, as such, an instant
hit.
Although the Ford Motor Company brought mass production to new
heights, it was a synthesizer and extrapolator of ideas rather than
being the first creator of mass production.
Ships had been
mass-produced using pre-manufactured parts and
assembly lines in Venice
several
hundred years earlier. The Venice Arsenal
apparently produced nearly one ship every day, in
what was effectively the world's first factory which, at its height, employed 16,000
people.
Mass production in the publishing industry has been commonplace
since
Johannes Gutenberg's
Bible was published using a
printing press in the mid-1400s.
During the
Industrial
Revolution simple mass production techniques were used at the
Portsmouth Block Mills to
manufacture ships' pulley blocks for the
Royal Navy during the
Napoleonic Wars. These were also used in the
manufacture of clocks and watches, and in the manufacture of small
arms.
During the
American Civil War the Springfield
Armory
started to mass produce guns, using interchangeable parts on a large
scale. The interchangeable part in manufacturing gun was
strongly advocated by Eli Whitney. For this reason, the term
Armory practice is occasionally used
to refer to mass production. Soon after the war the
American System of Watch
Manufacturing showed that these techniques could be
successfully applied even when very high precision was required.
Later, in the 1890s,
dollar watches
traded off lower precision for much lower manufacturing
costs.
Taking a look back at the history of American manufacturing, the
key features of mass production were the perfect interchangeability
of parts in the goods produced, long production runs and large
quantity of outputs that were homogeneous. These key features were
developed out of the earlier non-mechanized factory system known as
the American system.
While the preceding
American system of
manufacturing relied on
steam power,
mass production factories were
electrified and used sophisticated
machinery. Adoption of these techniques coincided
with the birth of the second industrial revolution in the US and
its emergence as the dominant industrial superpower in the 20th
century. Countries that were quick to follow in its wake (e.g.
Germany and Japan) enjoyed high rates of growth.
French political thinker and historian
Alexis de Tocqueville identified one
of the key reasons mass production was able to succeed so quickly
in America, namely that of the homogeneous consumer base. De
Tocqueville wrote in his
Democracy in America (1835) that
"The absence in the United States of those vast accumulations of
wealth which favor the expenditures of large
sums on articles of mere luxury... impact to the productions of
American industry a character distinct from that of other
countries' industries. [Production is geared toward] articles
suited to the wants of the whole people".
See also
References
- Womack, Jones, Roos; The Machine That Changed The World,
Rawson & Associates, New York. Published by Simon &
Schuster, 1990.
- Roaring Twenties - The Economy of the 1920s,
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/roaring-twenties/economy-of-the-1920s.html
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