Editing Factory (section)

=== 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>