Mechanization

Mechanization is the use of machinery to perform work previously done mainly by human or animal labor. It can increase output, reduce physical effort, and reorganize how work is done.

Machine: A device that uses mechanical power to perform or assist with work. Mechanization depends on machines that replace or amplify human and animal effort.
Industrial Revolution: A period of major economic and technological change beginning in Britain in the late eighteenth century. Mechanization expanded dramatically as industrial production moved from handwork to powered machinery.
Mechanized agriculture: Farming in which machines perform substantial tasks once done by people or draft animals. Tractors and harvesters transformed the scale and labor needs of farming.
Labor productivity: The amount of output produced per unit of labor input. Mechanization can increase output per worker by multiplying the force or speed of work.
Hand production: The making of goods primarily through manual labor and hand tools rather than powered machinery. It is the work arrangement mechanization directly changes or supplements.
Power transmission: The transfer of mechanical energy from a source to a machine or between machine parts. Belts, gears, shafts, and chains carry power from engines to working mechanisms.
Water frame: A water-powered spinning machine developed by Richard Arkwright in the 1760s. It mechanized cotton spinning and helped establish factory production.
Textile industry: The production of fibers, yarn, fabrics, and finished textile goods. Spinning and weaving were among the earliest industries extensively mechanized.
Division of labor: The organization of production into specialized tasks assigned to different workers. Machines often narrow tasks and coordinate workers around distinct stages of production.
Automation: The use of control systems to operate processes with reduced human intervention. Mechanization supplies powered action; automation adds control over when and how actions occur.

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