Technical Factors and Considerations

What is "Mechanisation"

Mechanisation is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows:

"Every machine is constructed for the purpose of performing certain mechanical operations, each of which supposes the existence of two other things besides the machine in question, namely, a moving power, and an object subject to the operation, which may be termed the work to be done. Machines, in fact, are interposed between the power and the work, for the purpose of adapting the one to the other."

In some fields, mechansation includes the use of hand tools. In modern usage, such as in engineering or economics, mechanisation implies machinery more complex than hand tools and would not include simple devices such as an ungeared horse or donkey mill. Devices that cause speed changes or changes to or from reciprocating to rotary motion, using means such as gears, pulleys or sheaves and belts, shafts, cams and cranks, usually are considered machines. After electrification, when most small machinery was no longer hand powered, mechanisation was synonymous with motorised machines.

By the early 20th century machines developed the ability to perform more complex operations that had previously been done by skilled craftsmen. An example is the glass bottle making machine developed 1905. It replaced highly paid glass blowers and child labor helpers and led to the mass production of glass bottles.

The most common form of mechanisation that has impacted on our current society is portable power tools. With more efficient production techniques and the use of new technologies, power tools have become easily available, have a greater variety, have choice in different brand names and certainly have become more affordable. Hand saws have been mechanised to become circular saws; coping saws with jig saws; hand drills with electric drills; and screwdrivers with electric screwdrivers. Most of these examples also come in a cordless or battery powered version.

What is 'Specialisation'

Specialisation is a method of production where a business, area or economy focuses on the production of a limited scope of products or services to gain greater degrees of productive efficiency within an overall system. Many countries, for example, specialise in producing the goods and services that are native to their part of the world, and they trade for other goods and services. This specialisation is therefore the basis of global trade, as few countries have enough production capacity to be completely self-sustaining.

Microeconomic Specialisation

At the individual level, specialisation usually comes in the form of career or labor specialisation. Each individual member of an organisation or economy, for example, has a unique set of talents, abilities, skills and interests that makes her uniquely able to perform a set of tasks. Labor specialisation exploits these unique talents and places people in areas where they perform the best, helping both the individual as well as the overall economy.

If, for example, a single individual excels at math but is not a proficient writer, it benefits both the individual and the community if she pursues a field that relies heavily on mathematics.

Using another example, specialisation can even refer to the production capacity of an individual firm. When setting up a factory, an assembly line is organised to increase efficiency rather than producing the entire product at one production station.

Macroeconomic Specialisation

Economies that realise specialisation have a comparative advantage in the production of a good or service. A comparative advantage refers to the ability to produce a good or service at a lower marginal cost and opportunity cost than another good or service.

When an economy can specialise in production, it benefits from international trade. If, for example, a country can produce bananas at a lower cost than oranges, it can choose to specialise and dedicate all of its resources to the production of bananas, using some of them to trade for oranges.

Specialisation also occurs within a country's borders, as is the case with the United States. For example, citrus goods grow better in the warmer climate of the South and West, many grain products come from the farms of the Midwest, and maple syrup comes from the maple trees of New England. All of these areas focus on the production of these specific goods, and they trade or purchase other goods.

Read more: Specialisation Definition | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/specialization.asp#ixzz5BTC3UcA4

What is 'Mass Production'

Mass production is the manufacture of large quantities of standardised products, frequently utilising assembly line technology. Mass production refers to the process of creating large numbers of similar products efficiently. Mass production is typically characterised by some type of mechanisation, as with an assembly line, to achieve high volume, the detailed organisation of materials flow, careful control of quality standards and division of labor.

BREAKING DOWN 'Mass Production'

Mass production is also referred to as flow production, repetitive flow production, series production or serial production. The demand for standardized uniform products in large quantities originated in the needs of military organizations. Precision machining equipment has led to the large-scale demand for mass produced products, created at a low cost and with a small workforce. Manufacturers are experimenting with three-dimensional printers to see how they can be utilized to enhance mass production of everyday products.

Mass Production and Henry Ford

Henry Ford pioneered the moving assembly line in 1913. The reduced manufacturing time for the product allowed Ford to apply the same method to chassis assembly. By 1915, Ford had reduced the time it took to produce an automobile by 90%. This resulted in automobiles that were substantially more affordable to the general public.

Benefits of Mass Production

Mass production, if stringently monitored, typically results in high-accuracy assembly, as production line machines are input with fixed parameters. Labor costs are often reduced for mass-produced products; assembly line production replaces many operations that were previously performed by employees, resulting in lower head counts.

Products that are mass-produced are assembled at a quicker rate due to increased automation and efficiency. This helps with prompt distribution and marketing of an organisation's products with the potential to create a competitive advantage, often resulting in higher profits. For example, McDonald's has a competitive advantage due to the speed at which it can produce a meal for the time-conscious customer.

Disadvantages of Mass Production

Mass production may result in wasted resources. Establishing an automated assembly line is typically capital-intensive; if there is a production design error, extensive costs may be required to redesign and rebuild mass production processes. Additionally, if one area of mass production is interrupted, the entire production process may be affected.

Employees that are part of a mass production assembly line may lack motivation, as tasks are repetitive and often boring. This may lead to low employee morale and increased levels of turnover. Mass production may stifle flexibility; production processes can be cumbersome and expensive to change. For example, if a pharmaceutical company has a comprehensive assembly line in place for the production of a popular drug, it would be difficult to respond to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory change in regards to how the drug is to be produced.

Read more: Mass Production https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mass-production.asp#ixzz5BTAxw7LK

What is "Automation"

Automation is the process in industry where various production operations are converted from a manual process, to an automated or mechanised process. Let's assume that a person is operating a metal lathe. The person collects the stock, already cut to size, from a bin. He, or she, places it in the lathe chuck, and moves the various hand-wheels on the machine to create a component; a bolt could be such an item. Once finished the person commences the process again to make another item. This would be a manual process. If this process were automated, a person would place long lengths of bar into the feed mechanism of an automatic lathe. The lathe mechanisms feed the material into the chuck, turn the piece to the correct shape and size, and cut it off the bar before commencing another item. This is an example of an automated machine in a manufacturing process.

It is also possible to automate assembly processes. In this case, several steps in the assembly of the components of an item are carried out automatically. For example, the components of a food container: top, bottom and body, may be formed and assembled into a finished container through the use of mechanised machine processes, instead of being done manually.

Modern automated processes are mostly controlled by computer programs which, through the action of sensors and actuators, monitor progress and control the sequences of events until the process is complete. Decisions made by the computer ensure that the process is completed accurately and quickly.

Through automation, workers are freed from unpleasant, hazardous, repetitive and tedious work. However, automation means that fewer people are required to complete the same amount of work. Also, higher skill levels are required to setup and operate automated machines and this results in the displacement from the workplace of semiskilled and unskilled workers. Displaced workers need to be retrained if they are to retain a place in the workforce. Training in computing, electronics and maintenance systems is now required to replace training in machine skills.

The study of any of the Focus areas in Industrial Technology will involve experience with a range of tools and equipment necessary to assist you to develop skills and produce your Major Project. You will have access to only a limited range of technology within your school or college environment and through Industry visits may have seen various industrial machines and processes in action.

The evolution of manufacturing from the use of simple hand tools in cottage industries, through the introduction of machinery in factories during the Industrial Revolution in the mid to late 1800’s to completely automated, computer controlled processes developed from the mid 1900’s to the present day is well documented in many history books.

Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machinery has revolutionised manufacturing by enabling plans and drawings from a design office to be communicated to machines such as machining centres, milling machines, profile cutters or electronic circuit making equipment, etc in an instant, ensuring the processes are carried out accurately, quickly and consistently without human error. This integration of design, drawing and machinery processes is referred to as CAD/CAM or computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing.

In the 20th century CAD/CAM would have been the emerging technology and it is still in a state of evolution as it is being applied to an ever widening range of processes across the timber, metal, building and product development industries.

But what are the manufacturing technologies and applications that are emerging in the 21st century?

Once experimental and in research stages, processes such as:

• Laser sintering or stereo lithography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering

• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/stereolith.htm

• 3D laser scanning

• http://www.scansite.com/scanning.html

• Water/abrasive jet cutting

• http://www.waterjets.org/about_abrasivejets.html

are now in widespread use in industry.

Many more technologies are constantly being introduced across a wide range of applications as well as numerous applications that are still in the development stage and will become commonplace in our lifetime.

The information available on the internet alone on emerging technologies is vast and impossible to cover here. However, by learning about some of the most recent developments we can start to appreciate the influences of these technologies on industrial processes, production methods and costs, efficiency, raw material usage, environmental advantages and so on.