Mass-Production Essay Example

perhaps a small amount to sell in local markets.

Within manufacturing, technology was primitive and consequently skilled labourers were strongly depended upon to create goods. The work was highly labour intensive, employees worked on a product from start to finish thus goods were produced slowly and in small numbers.This changed during the late 19th century however as a number of industries were subject to technological innovations, and these breakthroughs made it possible to use machinery instead of labour to produce a huge flow of goods. 2 The innovations in machinery did not merely replace manual operation; however, they also made it possible to produce a far greater output at each and every stage in the production process. Machinery was organised in such a way that stages of production were integrated and synchronised, resulting in a far greater throughput than had each stage been separate from another.

3The new technologies brought great advantages to the owners of businesses who utilised such production techniques. The technology allowed a reduction in the labour force, as well as a reduction in worker skill, resulting in lower labour costs. Workers would repeat simple repetitive tasks in a pre-defined time and sequence, which meant a low need for specialist skill. 4 Obviously the volume of what could be produced rose significantly, but flexibility was greatly reduced as there was a low range of products and even fewer designs to choose from, this is typified by Henry Fords comment "You can have any colour you like, so long as it's black.The Ford Motor Company, founded by Henry Ford is a prime example of how mass-production emerged through innovation in the workplace. The

growth in the automobile industry was phenomenal.

Registrations in the United States rose from 8,000 to 19,000 to 902,000 in 1912. In a decade, the automobile went from a novelty to a familiar practicality, changing the face of modern society. 6 This revolution would not have been possible without the benefits of mass-production. Task subdivision, close supervision and better organisation of machinery,7 meant mass-production could occur.

Ford produced his Model-T cars in bulk, and his mass-production techniques meant that he could do this far cheaper than competitors. Ford's innovation in the workplace meant that throughput was faster, labour was less skilled and the need for workers was reduced, all of which are key factors in mass-production. Ford demonstrated how technical and organisational innovations facilitated a faster and more efficient throughput of goods, thus illustrating the benefits of mass-production perfectly. Another example is that of Frederick Wilmslow Taylor.

As mass industrialisation began to occur all over the world in the late 19th century, there became a limited pool of skilled workers to recruit from. Many labourers were based in the agricultural regions of America or were immigrants from Europe. Directing the efforts of workers with little understanding of the English language, few required skills and no experience of working in the disciplined region of a factory, left the organisation with key problems. 8 Frederick Taylor through his principles of scientific management solved these problems.

Taylor focused on the individual and their work.He systematically broke down jobs into smaller tasks. He then set about finding the quickest way to perform each task, before piecing them together to discover "the one best way" of performing each job. 9 This streamlining

of work, accompanied by a piece-rate pay method meant dramatic increases in the productivity of unskilled workers. These examples demonstrate how technical or organisational innovations aided a faster and more efficient method of output. Technical innovation however, was not the only process that facilitated the growth of mass-production industries.

Mergers also allowed expansion of firms.When firms merged they underwent a process of administrative centralisation and then vertical integration, forward into marketing and backwards into purchasing and the controlling of raw or semi-finished materials. 10 Once the merger had taken place firms would rationalise their production facilities, as well as placing all of these facilities under a central administrative office. The mergers meant huge increases in business size, and through their streamlining of production and centralisation of administration duties the new firms were able to produce products in large quantities, in other words they were able to mass-produce.By 1910 the most successful enterprises to follow this strategy of integration included Standard Milling, Du Pont, General Electric, United Drug and Allis-Chalmers. Mass-production came about, through both technical and organisational innovation, as well as the mergers of businesses.

The advantages of mass production for the firms included lower labour costs, far greater productivity, and where mergers were concerned greater security through the contacts with other businesses. However additional factors helped this new type of mass-production emerge as the dominant production process.Mass-production could not exist merely on its own; to aid its success mass distribution and mass demand were required. Without a demand for goods then production and distribution of them would be meaningless.

But how did mass distribution play such a hugely significant role in the development of

mass production? As mass production began to emerge the rise of mass-distribution simultaneously followed, this came as a result of the changing face of business during this period, caused by the rapid improvements in transport and communication.In order for the mass-produced goods to be consumed new methods of distribution had to exist, and this is where the railways, canals, and the telegraph came into significance. Between 1870 and 1920 the kilometres of railway in operation in the UK rose from 21,578 to 32,707, and in the USA the rise was a monumental 85,170 kilometres up to 406,915. 11 Clearly the railroads were expanding rapidly and this was central to the economy.

The railways offered a fast, all-season form of transport and naturally helped create a national market, not a fragmented market, as had previously been the case.The mass-producing firms exploited this new national market to their advantage, as it allowed them to supply their goods to a population they previously could not reach. 12 As well as being a key player in the new distribution networks, the railways also played an important role in shaping future business structures. They represented 'the first modern enterprise' in the sense that they lead the field in developing hierarchical administrative structures, which were run by salaried managers, rather than just business owners.In addition the control of operations was through a new sophisticated internal information system in the railways. This method was adopted by the new businesses that emerged after this time.

13 Boyce and Ville stated that railways played a vital role in the distribution of goods, as well as providing a framework for future businesses to utilise. They

developed a cheap and reliable service, as well as reducing market uncertainty, making the market less vulnerable to acute demand fluctuations. Furthermore the railway stations stimulated urban development around them; this led to the development of new department stores.Goods were able to be quickly and easily moved from stations to the stores, thus minimisation of movement allowed quick co-ordination and integration. Other methods of communication were also involved in the success of mass production.

Canals, like the railways, were vital in the development of transport, though this role was nowhere near as influential as that of the railways. The canals provided another method of bulk transportation and did provide the economy with a viable infrastructure. However they were limited by terrain, and also speed, meaning that their influence would never rival that of the railroads.Their part in developing business and also mass-production should not be under-estimated however; for example the Erie Canal had a major impact on economic development westward in the USA. As stated - communication developments played an important role in distribution.

They allowed far faster processing of orders as well as easier co-ordination of business. The telegraph was a key component of this development. When first invented by Samuel Morse, the telegraph provided almost instantaneous long-distance communication, this greatly reduced market uncertainty.The newly developed communication allowed people to order goods faster, and with the new railways the consumer could rely on the order being made on time.

The telegraph also allowed an increase in the span of control, as managers could keep updated on business movements elsewhere. It is clear to see the telegraph s significant role in the emergence of mass-production,

it allowed orders to be placed quickly and markets to be integrated by working in conjunction with the railways as a method of distribution. For a good to require mass-production, a demand must firstly exist for that good. High demand came about through certain factors.One such factor being the widening of the markets brought about through the developments in the railways, as previously discussed. Before the railways, any growth in demand would be met by increasing specialisation amongst firms and a corresponding multiplication of producers and distributors.

14 However by the late 19th century the rapidly expanding markets were stimulating a constant need for high production levels form manufacturing, as well as an increasing internalisation of production and distribution activities within firms. 15 Not only were the expanding markets stimulating demand but so was the increasing population.In America between 1850 and 1913 the population quadrupled from 23 to 97 million. In Germany the population doubled from 34 to 67 million in the same period, and in Britain the rise was from 28 to 46 million. Clearly these huge population increases resulted in the demand for products rising, and mass-production was the perfect method for producing goods on such a large scale. These increased populations were becoming more centralised, and urbanised, causing markets to have yet more demand.

The stations and department stores were drawing people to move into towns.Similarly the new mass-producing factories were creating jobs, such as those in Fords '$5 a day' factory, further luring people into urbanisation. The natives moved into towns in search of jobs, and easier access to cheaper products. In doing this demand was stimulated, and companies could reach

more people with their produce.

Mass-production met this demand; it provided both jobs for the workers, as well as the goods which they consumed. A final cause for the increase in demand for goods could be seen through the new marketing of products. A mass market needed to exist in order for the mass-produced products to sell successfully.Manufacturers rarely became or remained large without having first built its own extensive marketing organisation. 16 An example of this is by Wills in 1884 who introduced the Bonsack cigarette making machine to Britain.

Wills brought in 15 machines, each of which was capable of producing 300 cigarettes a minute, far more than demand was at this time. Now that Wills was able to mass-produce he needed to attract new customers, he did this through intensive advertising and brand proliferation, one of its most successful campaigns being the introduction of 'penny cigarettes' in 1888.The example here is a clear demonstration of how marketing strategies created a large market for goods and by doing so increasingly helped establish mass-production. Using this example mass-production alone would not have made the product successful; only through the combination of factors discussed did the product triumph. During the years between the birth of "Fordism" and the widespread appearance of mass production, the Ford Motor Company expanded its annual output of Model Ts from three hundred thousand in 1914 to more than two million in 1923.

By the mid 1920s, the motor industry had become the largest mass-production industry in America, and a similar trend could be observed in Europe. 18 Ford's work and its emulation by other manufacturers led to the establishment of what

could be called the 'ethos of mass production in America. '19 The creation of this ethos marks a significant moment in the development of mass production and consumption in the States. In Britain, mass-production as well as innovative distribution methods were occurring in the textile industries of West Yorkshire.As factories became fully mechanised with the introduction of mechanically powered spinning and weaving machines, the private mills had a real advantage over domestic production and gradually the factory based industry became dominant.

Mills expanded, developing as multi-storeyed buildings each housing different processes. Most often warehouses and dye houses were concentrated in the valley bottoms using the water supply in the production process and the larger mills were soon associated with canal and rail links.The manufacturing economy developed rapidly around the textile mills. By now steam power had replaced water power and the number of mills increased to meet demand.

Britain, in particular Yorkshire and Lancashire, dominated the world textile market. The introduction of mass production techniques did not occur easily however. Agricultural workers caused a revolution against technology with perhaps the most famous uprising being the Luddite movement in England.The Luddites organised against technological advances in the textile industry, rejecting not just technology but rejecting technology that was seen as a threat to their way of life and livelihood.

The introduction of automation resulted in less need for the human workforce. Machines replaced workers which caused uncertainty in the workplace as well a deficiency in security needs noted later by Maslow. For the workers who remained, the work became tedious and repetitive leading to low motivation and increased labour turnover. Owners had to overcome this problem

by offering high wages and bonuses as way of motivating employees.Building upon the work of Maslow and Herzberg, recent organisational theorists Hackman and Oldman, suggest that intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and work performance are often promoted by including meaningful work and responsibility for work outcomes into the design of work activities.

20 Responsibility often involves decision-making authority and autonomy as far as how the work gets accomplished. Mass production techniques however did not offer these forms of motivation to the workforce. Skilled labourers were forced to carry out unskilled repetitive tasks in a dead-end job.They stayed purely for the monetary remuneration with little regard for organisational goals and no motivation. This led to low levels of output from each worker resulting in decreased productivity for the firm over all. Other problems came from the introduction of assembly lines.

It was impractical to rely on machinery to complete tasks, as the equipment had only just been invented and mechanical faults were still apparent. The failure of a machine half way through the production process would result in production grinding to a halt until that machine was fixed.This caused productivity to fall and costs to rise, demonstrating another inefficiency caused by mass production. However mass production techniques did aid the problems faced with a growing organisation and helped direct the efforts of the first mass workforce, whilst still allowing firms to produce large quantities of products at low costs. Mass-production emerged as the dominant industry due to inter-related features of supply and demand.

On the supply side technical innovation, organisational restructuring and better communication and transport links served up the components for the development of mass-production.The railways,

canals and the telegraph helped bring together markets, whilst the technical and organisational innovations allowed the production of goods to suit these markets. On the demand side an increasing population, more concentrated markets, and firms marketing strategies all acted as stimulants. This new, increased demand could only be met through the methods of mass production at the time; it met both the supply and demand requirements which is why it dominated production in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.