The
historical perspective of the industrial revolutions and the
production systems
Since
the industrial revolution during the 19th and 20th
century different production methods have dominated. On an overall
level these methods can be grouped as craftsmanship, mass production
and lean production, each with particular type of technology, work
organization, production solutions, how to handle different product
variants, and quality aspects.
Material
and processes to develop products have a very long history, that is
the case of casting, grinding, and forging which can be dated back
6000 years or more. The first attempts towards factory systems are
described from ancient Rome. The Romans had what could be called
factories to produce weapons, ceramic, glass ware, and some other
products. It was not until the 19th century that real
development towards the production systems of today started, when
what we can call factory systems were developed. This development is
frequently referred to as the industrial revolution.
Starting
with the first industrial revolution in the 18th century,
a big technical development occurred during the 19th and
20th century. The mechanization and automation in
machines, equipment and tools increased tremendously. The
prerequisites for mass production in the 20th century were
covered with machines producing identical components and the
utilization of capacity became an important factor to work with. The
consequences from that were a need to develop new methods for
planning of production, material supply and information.
The
first industrial revolution
It
took place during the period 1760-1830 with important changes that
affect the development of systems to produce products. Inventions
like the steam engine, the use of machine tools and the development
within the textile industry were remarkable. This happened in
parallel with the development of the fabrication system where factory
workers were organized based on new principles for division of labor.
This period also marks the transition from an economy based on
agriculture to an economy based on industrial activities.
A
significant discovery was the principle of division of labor that
consist in the separation of tasks in any system so that participants
may specialize. A great part of the changes carried our during the
19th and 20th century were based on this
principle.
Gradually
a need to coordinate, and also to control, the various operations
emerged and entire production process became centralized and located
in factory areas.
The
second industrial revolution
The
technical background to the development of the assembly system was
the introduction of standardized and interchangeable parts. While
England was leading the industrial revolution, the concept of
interchangeable parts was introduced in the United States. In 1797
Eli Whitney (1765-1825) negotiated with the American government and
received a contract for the production of 10,000 muskets. He believed
he could produce parts accurately enough to permit parts assembly
without fitting of each weapon. In this way the time required for
production could be considerable reduced. After several years of
development in his factory he traveled to Washington to demonstrate
the principle of interchangeable parts.
The
principle of interchangeable parts revolutionized the methods for
manufacturing and constituted a prerequisite for mass production.
Development of specialized production equipment made if possible to
produce identical components for the assembly of complete muskets.
Later on the manufacturing technique spread from the weapons industry
to Singer, the company manufacturing sewing machines.
Ford’s
production system from the early 20th century is often
associated with the introduction of the assembly line in the
manufacturing industry. The first movable assembly line in Ford’s
factory was put into operation in 1913, but technology had been
developed long before.
