History of Technology: Manufacturing

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History of Technology Manufacturing
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Brief History of Manufacturing

• Some of the simple machines-- wheel, lever,
  incline plane, pulley and screw-- were used as
  early as 3000 BC.
• During the Medieval times gears, were used to
  transmit power, and cams and rods were used to
  convert circular motion to reciprocal motion.
• However, mechanization, combining simple machines
  to make compound machines, did not become a
  common part of manufacturing until the late
  1700's. Boring mill, screw cutting lath, planing
  machine, drill press, milling machine, and gear
  cutting machine were some of the machines
  developed during the Industrial Revolution. These
  new machines made part production quicker and
  more accuracy.

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Brief History of Manufacturing
1712--Thomas Newcome captured the energy of heat
with the steam engine. By 1758, there were more
than 100 engines built primarily for use in mines
to pump water.  Although, the Newcome steam
engine was too large and costly for widespread
application,  it did show that piston engines
could convert heat energy to mechanic energy.
James Watt improved the steam engine by adding a
separate condenser to convert the steam back into
water. The result was a smaller, more powerful
and less expensive engine. The Watt's steam
engine was more practical for industrial
application.
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Brief History of Manufacturing

• 1793Eli Whitney invents cotton gin. In 1798
  Whitney receives government contract to mass
  produce army muskets. By 1799 he perfects concept
  of interchangeable parts.
• 1818Whitney develops milling machine and Thomas
  Blanhard develops machine to copy rifle stocks.
• 1799-1899developments focused on individual
  technologies (engineering drawing system, machine
  tools, steel manufacturing-Bessemer)
• Americans Elias Howe, Isaac Singer (sewing
  machines) and Cyrus McCormack (harvesters) and
  Henry Ford (automobiles) followed with inventions
  and innovations that used Whitney's examples of
  mass production and interchangeable parts.

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Brief History of Manufacturing

• The principle of the piston engine (developed by
  Newcome in 1712) led to the development of
  Nikolaus Otto's internal combustion engine in
  1859 and the diesel engine invented by Rudolf
  Diesel in 1898.
• Electric motors were also invented during this
  time period. In 1831,  showed that a wire
  carrying an electric current would move if placed
  in a magnetic field. Thus electricity could be
  converted to motion. It was this discovery that
  led to the development of the first electric
  motor constructed by Joseph Henry in 1831.
• These new sources of power, which converted heat
  or electrical energy to mechanical energy,
  changed manufacturing industries. The
  mechanization of production could now be done on
  a large scale. Mechanization increased the
  quantity of manufactured goods while decreasing
  the cost of production.

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Brief History of Manufacturing

• 1890sFocus moved toward examining work methods,
  worker managements, standardized work methods,
  time and motion, worker motivation, etc. Key
  players Frederick Taylor and Frank and Lillian
  Gilbreth.
• 1910The Ford System was beginning to take shape
  (Henry Ford and Charles Sorenson). They took all
  the elements of a manufacturing system-- people,
  machines, tooling, and products-- and arranged
  them in a continuous system for manufacturing the
  Model T automobile.

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Brief History of Manufacturing
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Brief History of Manufacturing
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Brief History of Manufacturing

• 1920sWas period of prosperity until the 1929
  stock market crash and The Great Depression.
  During the 1920s labor unions began to form
  which resulted in conflict with the Ford system.
• Product proliferation also put strains on the
  Ford system. Annual model changes, multiple
  colors, and options did not fit well in Ford
  factories.
• Alfred Sloan (General Motors) did respond to
  these changes and by 1930s GM had surpassed Ford
  in automobile production.

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Brief History of Manufacturing

• 1949-1975A great deal of work was done on
  quality systems, reducing setup and changeover
  problems, worker involvement and morale, improved
  product variety, reducing batch sizes, and
  approaching a just-in-time inventory process.
  Much of this was being led by Japan and more
  specifically Toyota. This was the beginning of
  what was to be the Toyota Production System or
  Lean Manufacturing.
• 1980s-some US manufacturers (e.g., GE, Omark,
  Kawasaki) were successful implementing some of
  these methods.

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Brief History of Manufacturing

• 1980sThe term World Class Manufacturing was
  coined and began to catch more wide-spread
  attention.
• 1990sJames Womak writes The Machine that
  Changed the World. This was a straightforward
  account of the history of automobile
  manufacturing combined with a study of Japanese,
  American, and European automotive assembly
  plants. What was new was a phrase-- "Lean
  Manufacturing
• Todaythe term Lean Manufacturing is synonymous
  with the Toyota Production System.