How Manufacturing Developed Over The Years

By Author: theindustryview
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We almost never think at all about where our daily durable products come from. Simply, we use our toothbrushes or our computers or coffee mugs, rarely giving them a second thought. Most of us do not even consider that hours and hours of work go into every single man-made item we utilize.

It is even more surprising when we think of how, prior to the evolution of manufacturing technology, items were hand-made and could take days to make. So, there is a long history of changes in manufacturing and how we’ve gone from just man-made to man-and-machine-made.

The Emergence of the Industrial Revolution

Earlier, individual labourers used to create products from natural resources that would benefit others. This was the beginning of modern manufacturing. Weaponry and basic farming equipment are the early examples of it. In those days, production was carried out by a guild of similar labourers who had been trained with an apprenticeship.

In the 18th century, the emergence of the industrial revolution turned out to be a huge catalyst for industrial manufacturing, bringing with it many innovations to the industry. ...
... These innovations included the use of machinery, primarily steam-powered, for the production of other machines.

Also, it further reduced the human labour needed to produce products and increased the efficiency of factories dramatically. It had already begun in England in 1760, finally reaching the United States by the end of the 18th century.

Introduction of Assembly Line

The introduction of the assembly line was the next shift in manufacturing. Ransom E. Olds, a car manufacturer, had first patented the Assembly line, in 1901. By applying his method, the company was able to produce 20 units per day, which eventually increased their output by 500 per cent in one year. As they were creating more vehicles, this allowed them to drastically decrease their prices.

Earlier in this shift, cars were considered a luxury item. The cars were fairly expensive when they were first released. Initially, the cheapest price was $825 (which is equivalent to about $18,000 in today’s currency). But with the changes in manufacturing, production efficiency increased, and manufacturers were able to drop prices drastically, so the vehicles were more affordable.

Creation of Unified Assembly Line

The creation of the Unified Assembly Line by Buick Motor Company was the next major step, in the manufacturing industry. In Flint, MI, the plant was opened and made headlines as it was able to turn around over 1,300 cars per day. C.B. Durham had built this plant and he wanted to obtain the most speed and economy in the assembly operation, while still maintaining quality standards.

By creating a system of elaborate and intricately designed conveyors in one unified line, they were able to cut costs significantly. In this way, this change was beneficial in a financial aspect also.

Development Of Lean Manufacturing

Toyota Motor Corporation, in 1948, had developed what they called ‘Lean Manufacturing.’ In order to improve the flow of production by identifying and eliminating waste, this process was developed. It was one of the drastic changes in manufacturing from previous systems as it required more persistence and detailed observation. Mostly, this system was confined to Japan until the 1970s, when the United Kingdom began to adopt their own system of lean manufacturing.

The concept of lean manufacturing began to spread outside of the automobile industry, by the 1990s. Now, it is used in electronics, aerospace, healthcare, construction, and food manufacturing.

Modern Day Robotics

The creation of Modern-day robotics has contributed a lot to the evolution of manufacturing technology. It is quite surprising that today’s robotic thinking began all the way back in the year 1926 with a robot called Televox. Westinghouse Electric Corporation had introduced Televox, and the robot could respond to the human voice and perform useful tasks. It was a simple robot, mainly created to simply perform crowd-pleasing tricks like smoking a cigarette, firing a revolver, or whistling a pleasing tune.

R.J. Wensley had created the first robot, that could be put to real use. He assumed that robots could be used for more than just entertainment and Televox was the first approach to this new form of industry. So, from then, we’ve made constant progress toward more robotic assembly and manufacturing lines.

The period 1950s and 1960s were massive periods of experimentation and movement toward this future. Unimate, the first industrial robot, began work in the General Motors Assembly Line in 1961. The creator of this device, George Devol, went on to create the world’s first robot manufacturing company. This was the beginning of the fourth revolution in industrial manufacturing.

Nowadays, robotics has reached a new level of innovation. There are some companies, which are even attempting to develop adaptive manufacturing robots which are able to work next to humans. What’s more, by being low-cost and user-friendly, these robots would help to improve efficiency and increase productivity.

Happy Reading!!