Prehistory and ancient history , Israel, 40000
BP or dagger blade now on display at the
National Archaeological Museum in France Human ancestors manufactured objects using stone and other tools long before the emergence of
Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago. The earliest methods of
stone tool making, known as the
Oldowan "
industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago, with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in
Ethiopia within the
Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago. To manufacture a stone tool, a "
core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as
flint) was struck with a
hammerstone. This flaking produced sharp edges that could be used as tools, primarily in the form of
choppers or
scrapers. These tools greatly aided the early humans in their
hunter-gatherer lifestyle to form other tools out of softer materials such as bone and wood. The
Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the
prepared-core technique, where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone. During the
Neolithic period, polished
stone tools were manufactured from a variety of hard rocks such as
flint,
jade,
jadeite, and
greenstone. The polished axes were used alongside other stone tools including
projectiles, knives, and scrapers, as well as tools manufactured from organic materials such as wood, bone, and antler. Copper
smelting is believed to have originated when the technology of pottery
kiln allowed sufficiently high temperatures. The concentration of various elements such as arsenic increases with depth in copper ore deposits and smelting of these ores yields
arsenical bronze, which can be sufficiently work-hardened to be suitable for manufacturing tools. The
Iron Age is conventionally defined by the widespread manufacturing of weapons and tools using iron and steel rather than bronze. Iron smelting is more difficult than tin and copper smelting because smelted iron requires hot-working and can be melted only in specially designed furnaces. The place and time for the discovery of iron smelting is not known, partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing metal extracted from nickel-containing ores from hot-worked meteoritic iron. During the growth of the ancient civilizations, many ancient technologies resulted from advances in manufacturing. Several of the six classic
simple machines were invented in Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians have been credited with the invention of the wheel. The
wheel and axle mechanism first appeared with the
potter's wheel, invented in
Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. Egyptian paper made from
papyrus, as well as
pottery, were mass-produced and exported throughout the Mediterranean basin. Early construction techniques used by the Ancient Egyptians made use of bricks composed mainly of clay, sand, silt, and other minerals.
Medieval and early modern , England The
Middle Ages witnessed new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth.
Papermaking, a 2nd-century Chinese technology, was carried to the Middle East when a group of Chinese papermakers were captured in the 8th century. Papermaking technology was spread to
Europe by the
Umayyad conquest of Hispania. A paper mill was established in Sicily in the 12th century. In Europe the fiber to make pulp for making paper was obtained from linen and cotton rags.
Lynn Townsend White Jr. credited the spinning wheel with increasing the supply of rags, which led to cheap paper, which was a factor in the development of printing. Due to the casting of cannon, the
blast furnace came into widespread use in France in the mid 15th century. The blast furnace had been used in China since the 4th century BC.
First and Second Industrial Revolutions weaving shed The
Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the
United States from 1760 to the 1830s. This transition included going from
hand production methods to machines, new
chemical manufacturing and
iron production processes, the increasing use of
steam power and
water power, the development of
machine tools and the rise of the
mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth. Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and
capital invested. The
textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods. Rapid industrialization first began in Britain, starting with mechanized spinning in the 1780s, with high rates of growth in steam power and iron production occurring after 1800.
Mechanized textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe and the United States in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging
in Belgium and the United States and later textiles in France. Building on improvements in vacuum pumps and materials research,
incandescent light bulbs became practical for general use in the late 1870s. This invention had a profound effect on the workplace because factories could now have second and third shift workers. Shoe production was mechanized during the mid 19th century. Mass production of
sewing machines and
agricultural machinery such as reapers occurred in the mid to late 19th century. The mass production of bicycles started in the 1880s.
Modern manufacturing 's assembly plant in
Wheatfield, New York in 1944
Electrification of factories, which had begun gradually in the 1890s after the introduction of the practical
DC motor and the
AC motor, was fastest between 1900 and 1930. This was aided by the establishment of electric utilities with central stations and the lowering of electricity prices from 1914 to 1917.
Electric motors allowed more flexibility in manufacturing and required less maintenance than line shafts and belts. Many factories witnessed a 30% increase in output owing to the increasing shift to electric motors. Electrification enabled modern mass production, and the biggest impact of early mass production was in the manufacturing of everyday items, such as at the
Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, which electrified its
mason jar plant in
Muncie, Indiana, U.S. around 1900. The new automated process used glass blowing machines to replace 210 craftsman glass blowers and helpers. A small electric truck was now used to handle 150 dozen bottles at a time whereas previously used hand trucks could only carry 6 dozen bottles at a time. Electric mixers replaced men with shovels handling sand and other ingredients that were fed into the glass furnace. An electric overhead crane replaced 36
day laborers for moving heavy loads across the factory. Mass production was popularized in the late 1910s and 1920s by
Henry Ford's
Ford Motor Company,
Lean manufacturing, also known as just-in-time manufacturing, was developed in Japan in the 1930s. It is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers. It was introduced in Australia in the 1950s by the British Motor Corporation (Australia) at its Victoria Park plant in Sydney, from where the idea later migrated to Toyota. News spread to western countries from Japan in 1977 in two English-language articles: one referred to the methodology as the "Ohno system", after
Taiichi Ohno, who was instrumental in its development within Toyota. The other article, by Toyota authors in an international journal, provided additional details. Finally, those and other publicity were translated into implementations, beginning in 1980 and then quickly multiplying throughout the industry in the United States and other countries. The concept of
world-class manufacturing is associated with excellence in the manufacturing field. The term has been promoted by author Richard J. Schonberger, although Flynn
et al. note that the term was initially used by R H Hayes and
Steven C. Wheelwright, before being taken up by Schonberger. In many manufacturing industries, production requires not only raw material supply chains but also the installation of large industrial machinery. ==Manufacturing strategy==