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A factory (previously manufactory) is a large industrial building where goods or products are manufactured. Most factories are large warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. 1 History of the factory
The world's first factory was the Venice Arsenal (founded 1104) in Venice, Italy, where, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, ships were mass produced on assembly lines using manufactured parts. The Venice Arsenal apparently produced nearly one ship every day and, at its height, employed 16,000 people.
Apart from that, Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory in Birmingham is widely regarded as the first modern factory.
In more recent times, factories were built in the late 18th century in British colonies and were simply buildings where a large number of workers gathered to perform hand labor, usually in textile production. This was more efficient for administrationBusiness use In business, administration is the performance or management of transactions and other matters of business, and the making and implementing of major decisions. And can be the title of the General Manager who reports to the corporate board of and distributionFunctional analysis This page deals with mathematical distributions. For other meanings of distribution, see distribution (disambiguation). This article is not about probability distributions. In mathematical analysis, distributions (also known as general of raw materials to individual workers.
Inventions such as the steam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. Steam engines were used in pumps, locomotive trains and steam ships, and were essential to the Industrial Revolution and the power loomThe power loom was invented in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It is a mechanised loom that is driven by driving-shafts using water power. It was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Weaving Industrial Revolution. were employed in cotton millThe cotton mill is a type of factory that was created to house spinning and weaving machinery. The first cotton mill was built in 1771 in Cromford, Derbyshire, England by Richard Arkwright. Industrial Revolution.s to create the industrial factory of the 19th century, where precision machine toolA machine tool is a powered mechanical device, typically used to fabricate metal components of machines by the selective removal of metal. The term machine tool is usually reserved for tools that used a power source other than human movement, but they cans and replaceable parts allowed greater efficiency and less waste.
Henry FordThis article is about the founder of the Ford Motor Company; for articles on other people named Henry Ford, see Henry Ford (disambiguation). Henry Ford ( July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the first to apply further revolutionized the factory concept in the early 20th century, with the innovation of mass production. A product such as an automobile was built by highly specialized workers situated alongside a series of rolling ramps. This concept dramatically decreased production costs for virtually all manufactured goods and brought about the age of consumerism.
In the mid- to late 20th century, Japan introduced next-generation factories with two improvements. The first was advanced statistical methods of quality control, pioneered by the American mathematician William Edwards Deming, who was ignored in his home country. This technique turned Japanese factories into world leaders in cost effectiveness and production quality. Second, the Japanese introduced industrial robots to the factory floor, in the late 1970s. These computer-controlled welding arms and grippers could perform simple tasks such as attaching a car door quickly and flawlessly 24 hours a day. This was yet another improvement to cost and speed.
Some speculation as to the future of the factory includes rapid prototyping, nanotechnology, and orbital zero gravity facilities.
