Editing Mass production (section)

==Overview==
Mass production involves making many copies of products, very quickly, using assembly line techniques to send partially complete products to workers who each work on an individual step, rather than having a worker work on a whole product from start to finish. The emergence of mass production allowed supply to outstrip [[demand]] in many markets, forcing companies to seek new ways to become more [[Competition (economics)|competitive]]. Mass production ties into the idea of overconsumption and the idea that we as humans consume too much. 

Mass production of fluid matter typically involves piping with [[centrifugal pump]]s or [[screw conveyor]]s (augers) to transfer raw materials or partially complete products between vessels. Fluid flow processes such as oil refining and bulk materials such as wood chips and pulp are automated using a system of [[industrial process control|process control]] which uses various instruments to measure variables such as temperature, pressure, volumetric and level, providing feedback.

Bulk materials such as coal, ores, grains and wood chips are handled by belt, chain, slat, pneumatic or [[Screw conveyor|screw]] conveyors, [[bucket elevator]]s and mobile equipment such as front-end [[Loader (equipment)|loaders]]. Materials on pallets are handled with forklifts. Also used for handling heavy items like reels of paper, steel or machinery are electric [[overhead crane]]s, sometimes called bridge cranes because they span large factory bays.

Mass production is [[Capital intensity|capital-intensive]] and energy-intensive, for it uses a high proportion of machinery and energy in relation to workers. It is also usually [[automation|automated]] while total expenditure per unit of product is decreased. However, the machinery that is needed to set up a mass production line (such as [[robot]]s and [[machine press]]es) is so expensive that in order to attain profits there must be some assurance that the product will be successful.

One of the descriptions of mass production is that "the skill is built into the tool" {{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}, which means that the worker using the tool may not need the skill. For example, in the 19th or early 20th century, this could be expressed as "the craftsmanship is in the [[workbench]] itself" (not the training of the worker). Rather than having a skilled worker measure every dimension of each part of the product against the plans or the other parts as it is being formed, there were [[Jig (tool)|jig]]s ready at hand to ensure that the part was made to fit this set-up. It had already been checked that the finished part would be to specifications to fit all the other finished parts—and it would be made more quickly, with no time spent on finishing the parts to fit one another. Later, once computerized control came about (for example, [[CNC]]), jigs were obviated, but it remained true that the skill (or knowledge) was built into the tool (or process, or documentation) rather than residing in the worker's head. This is the specialized capital required for mass production; each workbench and set of tools (or each CNC cell, or each [[fractionating column]]) is different (fine-tuned to its task).