This course traces the evolution of manufacturing, and considers its implications for economies and societies. Manufacturing as we know it today has its roots in the 18th and 19th centuries but goods have been manufactured from ancient times – evolving through process and systems to meet emerging needs. During the 20th century manufacturing became increasingly sophisticated, enabling many people in industrialised societies to enjoy previously undreamt-of material standards of living. But what exactly is manufacturing?
Broadly, manufacturing involves a cycle of activities - from the understanding of needs and wishes through the design of products, processes and systems, to the creation of products and related services and finally to distribution, service and re-cycling. This rather comprehensive view allows us to trace the evolution of manufacturing from craft, scientific, technical, managerial and economic perspectives.
Early manufacturers relied on human effort and craftsmanship: much was achieved with simple tools and processes. The Chinese, for example, were exporting ceramics in great volumes as early as the 7th century. Craftsmen learned their skills as apprentices, with methods and techniques handed down from generation to generation. In the UK powerful guilds emerged to protect the interests of the different craft groups. Craftsmen created artefacts of great beauty and utility, but with little appreciation of the underlying rationales and logic – what today we call science.
Leonardo da Vinci stands out as an early polymath with interests and expertise across a wide range of fields from art to engineering. The artist of the Mona Lisa was also imagining helicopters and submarines. Da Vinci was well ahead of his time and the ideas behind science did not become widely accepted until much later. By the 17th century, however science was being pursued systematically, largely for reasons of intellectual curiosity but also with a practical concern. The Royal Society of London, the world’s first Scientific Society was founded in 1663 and became - and remains to this day - an important focus for scientific discovery, debate and disputation.
The first factories of the 18th-century ‘Industrial Revolution’ brought craftsmen together, enabling more complex artefacts to be created quickly and efficiently. New canals transported goods from factories to customers. Water- and then steam-powered machinery automated physical work. Charles Babbage, a Cambridge Professor of Mathematics, conceived a mechanical computer and then became fascinated by the production skills necessary to create it, and published the first book on manufacturing: On the economy of machinery and manufactures, in 1832. The tension between craft and science continued. The famous clockmaker John Harrison fashioned timepieces of such accuracy that they enabled sailors to navigate the globe with great precision. Yet he did it with ingenuity and craftsmanship rather than science – much to the dismay of the scientists of the time!
London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 showcased manufactured goods from around a rapidly industrialising world. Although conditions in some factories were appalling for many years, the reality was that new expertise in production enabled a rash of innovations and much high productivity rates of a kind that we now take for granted. The car, the internal combustion engine, the aeroplane, fridges, washing machines… the list goes on. Sadly, during two 20th-century World Wars production capabilities were refined to a deadly degree. Ships, planes and armaments were all produced in staggering quantities as manufacturing became ever more efficient.
Communication has always been a priority for war, commerce and, at its best, for human progress and enlightenment. Early telegraphs and telephones were followed during the mid-20th century by radio communication. Tiny devices capable of processing programmes of logical instructions at high speed can now control the most complex activities, from global communications to huge passenger aircraft. These digital technologies now control manufacturing itself, via sophisticated global networks of automated factories producing the goods and services we need – and many we don’t!
Manufacturing has fashioned the world around us, but there is a danger that we take the availability of goods and services for granted. Food, phones, medicines and entertainment – all are products of increasingly sophisticated manufacturing systems. But what happens is the supply of these things we take for granted dries up? What happens if someone turns off the electricity? The rate at which critical resources are being consumed, and the extent to which energy production is damaging the climate, are now all too real. Manufacturing, often blamed for some of the ills of modern living, holds the expertise for making things better - for making things more efficiently, and by using less material through reuse and recycling. We can bring higher standards of living to many without destroying our environment. These are the exciting challenges for modern manufacturing.
