Knowra Mass production Mass production Mass production is a manufacturing system that makes large quantities of standardized goods, typically using specialized machinery, interchangeable parts, and assembly lines.
Assembly line : A production arrangement in which a product moves through a sequence of workstations, each performing assigned tasks. It organizes production into successive operations, reducing the time workers spend moving between tasks.
Cottage industry : A production system in which goods are made by workers in homes or small workshops, often for merchants. It shows how manufacture was organized before factories concentrated workers and machinery.
Ford Model T : An automobile produced by the Ford Motor Company from 1908 to 1927, widely associated with early moving assembly-line production. Its manufacture made mass production visible in a durable consumer product.
Taylorism : A system of workplace management based on measuring tasks and prescribing efficient methods. Its methods intensified scrutiny of workers' motions and pace in factories.
Interchangeable parts : Components made to consistent specifications so that one can replace another without custom fitting. Standardized components make rapid assembly and repair possible across large production runs.
Industrial Revolution : The period of major economic and technological change that began in Britain in the eighteenth century and spread worldwide. Mechanization and factory growth during this transformation made large-scale manufacture possible.
Fordism : A production and economic model associated with standardized goods, assembly-line work, and relatively high wages. It connects factory methods to the wages and consumer markets that sustained large output.
Alienation : In social theory, a condition in which people experience their labor, its products, or social relations as estranged from themselves. Repetitive, tightly controlled factory tasks became a prominent example in critiques of industrial labor.
Division of labor : The organization of work into specialized tasks performed by different people or groups. Narrowly assigned tasks let workers repeat operations quickly and consistently.
Factory system : A system of production that brings workers, machinery, and materials together in a centralized workplace. Factories enabled the coordination and supervision that mass production requires.
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