Mass Production and the Needs of the Consumer

The most critical factor which had enabled the industrial revolution is the advent of mass production. While it is perfectly accurate to maintain that there were other contributing factors it never the less remains undeniable that the substrate of our economic power lays in the efficiency of mass production.

When we employ the term "mass production" we refer to a system that simplifies the manufacturing process in a way that for some reason eluded the craftsmen and artisans of previous generation. To give you an abbreviated idea of what the mass production process entail I will paraphrase from the great Adam Smith;

Were once a single person would saw the bone, bore the whole and polish the sharpened bone until it would be recognized as a needle, the idea of mass production is to have one specific person doing one specific and highly simplified task and them pass the given item along on an assembly line to a second person who would them perform his task. After the given item would make its way down the line it would be complete in a fraction of the time it would take for one person to do all of the labor. This process also provides that advantage on the part of the manufacture of not having to employ highly skilled workers, seeing as the process of delegation requires a limited amount of skill.

Although I Adam Smith used an example of nails the idea is the same. What is interesting is an assembly line concept which exists in an assembly line concept; this is the topic of this article.

The idea is the "modular" idea. The example I will bring is with mannequins. Once upon a time mannequins were one or two pieces at most and that was that. There was no ability to attach or remove arms or replace specific parts if they were to get damaged. As opposed to the productions of cars or automobiles were every part can be replaced individually.

The reason why this article is relevant is because this simple concept of modularity has been developed to make manufacturing a simpler and thus efficient process. This makes production and output higher which results in higher profits. But this issue that does not get enough attention is the needs of the consumer.

In the case of mannequins mentioned above this has been done. Nearly every mannequin today has modular parts which make it a very good investment for a store. But my question to you today is how many other industries could be integrating this modular method into their product but are not. I think that the major companies don't want people being independent and saving money because there products are so easy to fix or adjust. I think that major companies want you to keep coming back for more. This is what I think is not only being neglected but I think intentionally ignored. It's a shame.

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