Products and Manufacturers

There are several usages of the word product, see:

• Product (mathematics)
• Product (business)
• Product (project management)
• Product (biology)
• Product (chemistry)
• Product (hip-hop artist), independent hip-hop artist from Meriden, Connecticut
• Slang for narcotics

This is a specific reference to the process of Manufacturing. For the wider business elements of Manufacturing see the definitions in the manufacturing overview.

Manufacturing is the transformation, by means of a tool and/or processing medium, of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. It is a large branch of industry and of secondary production. Some industries, like semiconductor and steel manufacturers use the term fabrication.

Although handicraft production has been with us for many millennia, modern-style manufacturing is generally regarded as beginning around 1780 with the British Industrial Revolution, spreading thereafter to Continental Europe and North America, and subsequently around the world. Originally, the term applied to commodities or artifacts which were "made by hand".

While it remains a huge part of the modern world economy—perhaps a quarter of aggregate world production of goods and services—many of the world's wealthier nations devote an ever smaller proportion of their workforce to manufacturing activity owing to relocation of enterprises to lower-wage countries and the rising proportion of economic activity devoted to service activity.

Manufacturing topics

Taxonomy of manufacturing processes

Taxonomy of manufacturing processes (separate page)

Manufacturing systems

• Craft or Guild system
• English system of manufacturing
• American System of manufacturing
• Soviet collectivism in manufacturing
• Mass production
• Just In Time manufacturing
• Lean manufacturing
• Flexible manufacturing
• Mass customization
• Agile manufacturing
• Rapid manufacturing
• Prefabrication

Theories

• Taylorism
• Fordism
• Scientific management

Control

• Management
  • List of management topics
  • Total Quality Management
• Quality control
  • Six Sigma

Manufacturing engineering

• Production Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Manufacturing Systems Engineering
• Computer-aided manufacturing
• Computer integrated manufacturing
• Numerically controlled
• Computer numerically controlled
• Distributed Control Systems
• Fieldbus control systems
• Programmable logic controllers

Assembly systems

• Assembly line
• Industrial robot

Design

• Rapid prototyping
• Computer aided design
• New product development

Others

• Primary industry
• Factory
• Distributor
• Warehouse
• Wholesaler
• Retailer
• Consumer

Lists of related topics

• list of engineering topics
• list of management topics
• list of production topics
• list of marketing topics
• list of economics topics
• list of international trade topics
• list of finance topics
• list of accounting topics
• list of information technology management topics
• list of business law topics
• list of human resource management topics
• list of business theorists
• list of economists
• list of corporate leaders

External links

• http://www.coolstuffbeingmade.com - Watch Cool Manufacturered Products Being Made
• http://www.nam.org - The National Association of Manufacturers Web site
• http://manufacturing.stanford.edu - A site with videos showing the manufacturing process for many everyday things
• http://www.themanufacturer.com/ - A site consisting of news and articles about US and UK manufacturing industries