Editing Factory (section)

== History ==
[[File:View of the entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the [[Venetian Arsenal]] by [[Canaletto]], 1732.]]
[[File:WaterMill Interior MotionBlur.jpg|thumb|Interior of the [[Lyme Regis]] watermill, UK (14th century).]]

[[Max Weber]] considered production during ancient and medieval times as never warranting classification as factories, with methods of production and the contemporary economic situation incomparable to modern or even pre-modern developments of industry. In ancient times, the earliest production limited to the household, developed into a separate endeavor independent to the place of inhabitation with production at that time only beginning to be characteristic of industry, termed as "unfree shop industry", a situation caused especially under the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh, with slave employment and no differentiation of skills within the slave group comparable to modern definitions as [[division of labour]].<ref>John R. Love – [https://books.google.com/books?id=WGTYmsryhDcC&dq=ancient+factory+production&pg=PA129 Antiquity and Capitalism: Max Weber and the Sociological Foundations of Roman Civilization] Routledge, 25 April 1991 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0415047501}}</ref><ref>(secondary) JG Douglas, N Douglas – [https://books.google.com/books?id=zs-dXU0-24cC&dq=ancient+factory+production&pg=PT262 Ancient Households of the Americas: Conceptualizing What Households Do] O'Reilly Media, Inc., 15 April 2012 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|1457117444}}</ref><ref>M Weber – [https://books.google.com/books?id=S4BJKqVYjrEC&dq=history+of+factory+production&pg=PA162 General Economic History] Transaction Publishers, 1981 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0878556907}}</ref>

According to translations of Demosthenes and Herodotus, [[Naucratis]] was a, or the only, factory in the entirety of ancient [[Egypt]].<ref>[[Demosthenes]], Robert Whiston – [https://books.google.com/books?id=1GcNAAAAYAAJ&dq=Nancratis+factory&pg=PA498 Demosthenes, Volume 2] Whittaker and Company, 1868 Retrieved 12 July 2012</ref><ref>[[Herodotus]], [[George Rawlinson]] – [https://books.google.com/books?id=9jgTAAAAQAAJ&dq=history+of+ancient+factories&pg=PA229 ''History of Herodotus''] John Murray 1862 Retrieved 12 July 2012</ref><ref>(secondary) (E.Hughes ed) Oxford Companion to Philosophy – ''techne''</ref> A source of 1983 (Hopkins), states the largest factory production in ancient times was of 120 slaves within fourth century BC Athens.<ref>(P Garnsey, K Hopkins, C. R. Whittaker)  [https://books.google.com/books?id=UY0zhHU9tzkC&q=ancient+trade – ''Trade in the Ancient Economy''] University of California Press, 1983 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0520048032}}</ref> An article within the New York Times article dated 13 October 2011 states:

{{blockquote|"In African Cave, Signs of an Ancient Paint Factory" – (John Noble Wilford)}}

... discovered at [[Blombos Cave]], a cave on the south coast of South Africa where 100,000-year-old tools and ingredients were found with which [[early modern human]]s mixed an [[ochre]]-based [[paint]].<ref>{{cite news |author=John Noble Wilford |title=In African Cave, Signs of an Ancient Paint Factory |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 October 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/science/14paint.html |access-date=14 October 2011}}</ref>

Although The ''Cambridge Online Dictionary'' definition of factory states:

{{blockquote|a building or set of buildings where large amounts of goods are made using machines<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/factory|title=factory definition, meaning - what is factory in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus – Cambridge Dictionaries Online|work=cambridge.org}}</ref>}}

elsewhere:

{{blockquote| ... the utilization of machines presupposes social cooperation and the division of labour | von Mises<ref>[[Ludwig von Mises|L von Mises]] - [https://books.google.com/books?id=IKBUHIV2c3gC&dq=history+of+machines&pg=PA111 Theory and History] Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007 Retrieved 2012-07-12 {{ISBN|1933550198}}</ref>}}

The first machine is stated by one source to have been traps used to assist with the capturing of animals, corresponding to the machine as a mechanism operating independently or with very little force by interaction from a human, with a capacity for use repeatedly with operation exactly the same on every occasion of functioning.<ref>E Bautista Paz, M Ceccarelli, J Echávarri Otero, JL Muñoz Sanz – [https://books.google.com/books?id=cyL5_DRL1O0C&q=history+of+machines A Brief Illustrated History of Machines and Mechanisms] Springer, 12 May 2010 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|9048125111}}</ref> The [[wheel]] was invented {{Circa|3000 BC}}, the spoked wheel {{Circa|2000 BC}}. The [[Iron Age]] began approximately 1200–1000 BC.<ref>JW Humphrey – [https://books.google.com/books?id=b76EBrop0sEC&q=ancient+technology Ancient Technology] Greenwood Publishing Group, 30 September 2006 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0313327637}}</ref><ref>WJ Hamblin – [https://books.google.com/books?id=h5IQQir5eFEC&q=history+of+ancient+war Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC: Holy Warriors at the Dawn of History] Taylor & Francis, 12 April 2006 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0415255880}}</ref>  However, other sources define machinery as a means of production.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Industrial Revolution in Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern Factory System in England |last=Mantoux |first= Paul|year= 2000|publisher = Harper & Row|isbn= 978-0061310799}}</ref>

Archaeology provides a date for the earliest city as 5000 BC as Tell Brak (Ur ''et al.'' 2006), therefore a date for cooperation and factors of demand, by an increased community size and population to make something like factory level production a conceivable necessity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Oates|first1=Joan|last2=McMahon|first2=Augusta|last3=Karsgaard|first3=Philip|last4=Quntar|first4=Salam Al|last5=Ur|first5=Jason|date=September 2007|title=Early Mesopotamian urbanism: a new view from the north|url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4269009|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=81|issue=313|pages=585–600|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00095600|issn=0003-598X|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Knabb |first=Kyle Andrew |title=Understanding the role of production and craft specialization in ancient socio-economic systems: toward the integration of spatial analysis, 3D modeling and virtual reality in archaeology |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j23r3mr |type=MA |year=2008 |publisher=University of California San Diego}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8aLb5pnm1j4C&pg=PA318|title=Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome|last=Gates|first=Charles|isbn=9780415121828|year=2003|publisher=Psychology Press|page=318}}</ref>

Archaeologist Bonnet, unearthed the foundations of numerous [[workshop]]s in the city of [[Kerma]] proving that as early as 2000 BC Kerma was a large urban capital.<ref>Grzymski, K. (2008). Book review: The Nubian pharaohs: Black kings on the Nile. ''[[American Journal of Archaeology]]'', Online Publications: Book Review. Retrieved from {{cite web |url=http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/04_Grzymski.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-12-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105144009/http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/04_Grzymski.pdf |archive-date=2014-11-05 }}</ref>

The [[watermill]] was first made before the end of the third century BC.<ref name="Selin">{{cite book |last1=Selin |first1=Helaine |title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Westen Cultures |date=2013 |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |isbn=9789401714167 |page=282 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzjpCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA282}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reden |first1=Sitta von |title=Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies: Volume 2: Local, Regional, and Imperial Economies |date=20 December 2021 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-060493-1 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_of_Ancient_Afro_Eurasian_Econom/cmZUEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=watermill+invention+Persian+Empire&pg=PT503&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref> In the third century BC, [[Philo of Byzantium]] describes a water-driven wheel in his technical treatises. Factories producing [[garum]] were common in the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/factory-for-romans-favorite-funky-fish-sauce-discovered-near-ashkelon/|title=Factory for Romans' favorite funky fish sauce discovered near Ashkelon|first=Amanda|last=Borschel-Dan|date=16 December 2019|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> The [[Barbegal aqueduct and mills]] are an industrial complex from the second century AD found in southern France. By the time of the fourth century AD, there was a water-milling installation with a capacity to grind 28 tons of grain per day,<ref name="Hill2013">{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Donald |author-link1=Donald Hill |title=A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times |date=2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781317761570 |pages=163–166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMceAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163}}</ref> a rate sufficient to meet the needs of 80,000 persons, in the Roman Empire.<ref>TK Derry, (TI Williams ed) – [https://books.google.com/books?id=PoAJbWm3nEUC&dq=history+of+the+water+mill&pg=PA252 A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900] Courier Dover Publications, 24 March 1993 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0486274721}}</ref><ref>A Pacey – [https://books.google.com/books?id=X7e8rHL1lf4C&dq=History+of+the+water-mill&pg=PA10 Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History] MIT Press, 1 July 1991 Retrieved 12 July 2012 {{ISBN|0262660725}}</ref><ref>WM Sumner – ''Cultural development in the Kur River Basin, Iran: an archaeological analysis of settlement patterns'' University of Pennsylvania., 1972  [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZS1WAAAAYAAJ] Retrieved 12 July 2012</ref>

The large population increase in medieval Islamic cities, such as [[Baghdad]]'s 1.5 million population, led to the development of large-scale factory milling installations with higher productivity to feed and support the large growing population. A tenth-century grain-processing factory in the Egyptian town of [[Bilbays]], for example, milled an estimated 300 tons of grain and flour per day.<ref name="Hill2013"/> Both watermills and [[windmill]]s were widely used in the Islamic world at the time.<ref name=Lucas-65>Adam Lucas (2006), ''Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology'', p. 65, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-14649-0}}</ref>

The [[Venetian Arsenal|Venice Arsenal]] also provides one of the first examples of a factory in the modern sense of the word. Founded in 1104 in [[Venice]], [[Republic of Venice]], several hundred years before the [[Industrial Revolution]], it [[mass production|mass-produced]] ships on [[assembly line]]s using [[American system of manufacturing|manufactured parts]]. The Venice Arsenal apparently produced nearly one ship every day and, at its height, employed 16,000 people.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gEErKbg_LQQC&q=The+Venice+Arsenal+apparently+produced+nearly+one+ship+every+day+and%2C+at+its+height%2C+employed+16%2C000+people&pg=PA95|title=SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: CONCEPTS AND CASES|last=ALTEKAR|first=RAHUL V.|date=1 January 2005|publisher=PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.|isbn=9788120328594|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Plotkin |first1=Robert |title=Computers in the Workplace, Revised Edition |date=1 May 2020 |publisher=Infobase Holdings, Inc |isbn=978-1-4381-8273-5 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Computers_in_the_Workplace_Revised_Editi/K2mLEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Venice+Arsenal+produce+ship+day&pg=PA4&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref>

=== Industrial Revolution ===
{{Main article|Factory system}}
{{see also| Industrial Revolution}}
[[File:Cromford 1771 mill.jpg|thumb|[[Cromford mill]] as it is today.]]
[[File:Työpäivä päättyy Tampellassa.jpg|thumb|Working day ends at [[Tampella]] factory in [[Tampere]], Finland in 1909]]
One of the earliest factories was [[John Lombe]]'s [[Derby Industrial Museum|water-powered silk mill]] at [[Derby]], operational by 1721. By 1746, an integrated [[brass mill]] was working at [[Warmley]] near [[Bristol]]. Raw material went in at one end, was [[Smelting|smelted]] into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing was provided for workers on site. [[Josiah Wedgwood]] in Staffordshire and [[Matthew Boulton]] at his [[Soho Manufactory]] were other prominent early industrialists, who employed the factory system.

The factory system began widespread use somewhat later when [[cotton]] [[spinning (textiles)|spinning]] was mechanized.

[[Richard Arkwright]] is the person credited with inventing the prototype of the modern factory. After he patented his [[water frame]] in 1769, he established [[Cromford Mill]], in [[Derbyshire]], England, significantly expanding the village of [[Cromford]] to accommodate the migrant workers new to the area. The factory system was a new way of organizing [[workforce]] made necessary by the development of machines which were too large to house in a worker's cottage. Working hours were as long as they had been for the farmer, that is, from dawn to dusk, six days per week. Overall, this practice essentially reduced skilled and unskilled workers to replaceable commodities. Arkwright's factory was the first successful cotton spinning factory in the world; it showed unequivocally the way ahead for industry and was widely copied.

Between 1770 and 1850 mechanized factories supplanted traditional artisan shops as the predominant form of manufacturing institution, because the larger-scale factories enjoyed a significant technological and supervision advantage over the small artisan shops.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=  Marglin|first1= Stephen A.|date= Jul 1, 1974|title= What Do Bosses Do?: The Origins and Functions of Hierarchy in Capitalist Production|url= https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/marglin/files/review_of_radical_political_economics-1974-marglin-60-112_0.pdf|journal= Review of Radical Political Economics|volume= 6|issue= 60|pages= 60–112|doi= 10.1177/048661347400600206|s2cid= 153641564|access-date= 2 February 2019}}</ref>  The earliest factories (using the [[factory system]]) developed in the cotton and wool textiles industry. Later generations of factories included mechanized shoe production and manufacturing of machinery, including machine tools. After this came factories that supplied the railroad industry included rolling mills, foundries and locomotive works, along with agricultural-equipment factories that produced cast-steel plows and reapers. Bicycles were mass-produced beginning in the 1880s.

The [[Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company|Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company's Bridgewater Foundry]], which began operation in 1836, was one of the earliest factories to use modern materials handling such as cranes and rail tracks through the buildings for handling heavy items.<ref>{{cite book |title=Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution  |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu  |url-access=registration  |last=Musson |author2=Robinson |year=1969 |publisher =University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu/page/491 491–95]|isbn=9780802016379 }}</ref>

Large scale [[electrification]] of factories began around 1900 after the development of the [[AC motor]] which was able to run at constant speed depending on the number of poles and the current electrical frequency.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power|last1=Hunter|first1=Louis C.|last2=Bryant|first2=Lynwood|author3=Bryant, Lynwood|year=1991|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, London|isbn=0-262-08198-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofindustr00hunt}}</ref>  At first larger motors were added to [[line shaft]]s, but as soon as small horsepower motors became widely available, factories switched to unit drive. Eliminating [[line shaft]]s freed factories of layout constraints and allowed factory layout to be more efficient. Electrification enabled sequential [[automation]] using [[relay logic]].

=== Assembly line ===
{{Main article|Assembly line}}
[[File:Factory Automation Robotics Palettizing Bread.jpg|thumb|Factory automation with industrial robots for palletizing food products like bread and toast at a bakery in Germany.]]
[[Henry Ford]] further revolutionized the factory concept in the early 20th century, with the innovation of the [[mass production]]. Highly specialized laborers situated alongside a series of rolling ramps would build up a product such as (in Ford's case) an [[automobile]]. This concept dramatically decreased production costs for virtually all manufactured goods and brought about the age of [[consumerism]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/default-document-library/henryfordandinnovation.pdf?sfvrsn=0|title=Henry Ford and Innovation|last=Bob Casey, John & Horace Dodge|date=2010|website=The Henry Ford}}</ref>

In the mid - to late 20th century, industrialized countries introduced next-generation factories with two improvements:

# Advanced [[statistics|statistical]] methods of [[quality control]], pioneered by the American mathematician [[W. Edwards Deming|William Edwards Deming]], whom his home country initially ignored. Quality control turned Japanese factories into world leaders in [[Cost-effectiveness analysis|cost-effectiveness]] and production quality.
# [[Industrial robot]]s on the factory floor, introduced in the late 1970s. These computer-controlled welding arms and grippers could perform simple tasks such as attaching a car door quickly and flawlessly 24 hours a day. This too cut costs and improved speed.

Some speculation<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277164/ep6-technology-trends-relevant-to-manufacturing.pdf|title=What are the significant trends shaping technology relevant to manufacturing?|first1=Phill |last1=Dickens |first2=Michael |last2=Kelly |first3=John R. |last3=Williams|date=October 2013|website=Government Office for Science UK}}</ref> as to the future of the factory includes scenarios with [[rapid prototyping]], [[nanotechnology]], and [[orbit]]al zero-[[Gravitation|gravity]] facilities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/future-zero-gravity-living-is-here-180963243/|title=The Future of Zero-Gravity Living Is Here|last=Fishman|first=Charles|date=June 2017|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref> There is some scepticism about the development of the factories of the future if the robotic industry is not matched by a higher technological level of the people who operate it. According to some authors, the four basic pillars of the factories of the future are strategy, technology, people and habitability, which would take the form of a kind of "laboratory factories", with management models that allow "producing with quality while experimenting to do it better tomorrow".<ref>[[Javier Borda]], ''Hombre y Tecnología: 4.0 y más'' (Man and Technology: 4.0 and beyond)''.'' Sisteplant Publishers, 2018. ISBN 978-84-09-02350-9 (in Spanish)</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-10-13 |title=El escéptico de la Industria 4.0: 'Personas frente a robots' |url=https://www.elmundo.es/economia/2014/10/13/543b8288e2704e25238b456e.html |access-date=2023-09-13 |website=ELMUNDO |language=es}}</ref>