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History of Manufacturing
The United States is regarded as a giant in the industrial world. This
has not
always been so. During the 1700s, there was a severe shortage of skilled
machinists in America. Eli Whitney soon recognize that if you used a
template, the workers how had little skill could operate the machines
and produce identical parts, which were interchangeable.
Before this time, skilled machinists were needed to manufacture the
parts from a
design. Unfortunately, it didnt mattered how skilled the machinists were
the parts
were never identical. This meant that if a part to a musket broke, you
simply could not purchase a replacement part. The part had to be made
for that particular musket---and you hoped it worked.
Eli Whitney put his system to the test first in the manufacturing of
muskets. His
reputation was so great the US government gave him a contract for 10,000
muskets, to be filled in two years. Today that order could be made in
two days. However, Eli Whitney did not have a factory or machines. It
took him eight years to deliver the order. Eli Whitney however,
developed and perfected new techniques and machines, which enabled him
to produce a further 15,000 muskets within the following two years. In
addition, if a part on one of his muskets malfunctioned, a replacement
part was readily available. Imagine the benefit this one factor meant to
the consumer of that time.
European Origins:
Eli Whitney may have bee the first person to develop this way of
manufacturing.
He was not the first to conceive the idea. Honoré le Blanc in the mid
18th century
France, was the one who first proposed the production of guns used by
Whitney.
However, Honoré le Blancs idea was opposed by the craftsmen, and was
never developed on a significant scale. In retrospect, had the French
perused Blancs idea and developed it as Whitney had---I wonder what the
outcome of Waterloo would have been?
Pre Industrial Revolution:
Although le Blanc and Whitney developed the use of machines and
templates, the idea of interchangeable parts and separate assembly line
was not new.
Assembly lines and mass production were first developed in Venice
several hundred years earlier to build ships using pre-manufactured
parts. It is said that the Venice Arsenal produced nearly one ship a
day, creating effectively the world's first factory.
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