18 Facts About Mass production

Mass production, known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines.

Term mass production was popularized by a 1926 article in the Encyclopædia Britannica supplement that was written based on correspondence with Ford Motor Company.

Concepts of mass production are applied to various kinds of products: from fluids and particulates handled in bulk, to parts and assemblies of parts (household appliances and automobiles).

Mass production involves making many copies of products, very quickly, using assembly line techniques to send partially complete products to workers who each work on an individual step, rather than having a worker work on a whole product from start to finish.

Mass production is capital-intensive and energy-intensive, for it uses a high proportion of machinery and energy in relation to workers.

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However, the machinery that is needed to set up a mass production line is so expensive that in order to attain profits there must be some assurance that the product is to be successful to.

Standardized parts and sizes and factory Mass production techniques were developed in pre-industrial times; before the invention of machine tools the manufacture of precision parts, especially metal ones, was very labor-intensive.

Mass production developed a 6-inch field howitzer whose gun barrel, carriage assembly and ammunition specifications were made uniform for all French cannons.

Mass production techniques were used to rather limited extent to make clocks and watches, and to make small arms, though parts were usually non-interchangeable.

Prerequisites for the wide use of mass production were interchangeable parts, machine tools and power, especially in the form of electricity.

Mass production benefited from the development of materials such as inexpensive steel, high strength steel and plastics.

An influential article that helped to frame and popularize the 20th century's definition of mass production appeared in a 1926 Encyclopædia Britannica supplement.

Biggest impact of early mass production was in manufacturing everyday items, such as at the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, which electrified its mason jar plant in Muncie, Indiana, U S, around 1900.

Mass production was popularized in the late 1910s and 1920s by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company, which introduced electric motors to the then-well-known technique of chain or sequential production.

However, mass production is inflexible because it is difficult to alter a design or production process after a production line is implemented.

Mass production improved productivity, which was a contributing factor to economic growth and the decline in work week hours, alongside other factors such as transportation infrastructures and agricultural mechanization.

One economist has argued that this constituted "overMass production" and contributed to high unemployment during the Great Depression.

Mass production allowed the evolution of consumerism by lowering the unit cost of many goods used.