Mass production, also known as flow production, series production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch production, it is one of the three main production methods.
A modern automobile assembly line
Sometimes production in series has obvious benefits, as is the case with this 5-sickle casting mould from the Bronze Age on show at a museum in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
A pulley block for rigging on a sailing ship. By 1808, annual production in Portsmouth reached 130,000 blocks.
Mass production of Consolidated B-32 Dominator airplanes at Consolidated Aircraft Plant No. 4, near Fort Worth, Texas, during World War II
The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a period of global transition of the human economy towards more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes that succeeded the Agricultural Revolution. Beginning in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution spread to continental Europe and the United States, during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and the result was an unprecedented rise in population and the rate of population growth. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods, and textiles became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested.
A Roberts loom in a weaving shed in the United Kingdom in 1835
A handloome weaving from William Hogarth's Industry and Idleness in 1747
John Lombe's silk mill site today in Derby, rebuilt as Derby Silk Mill
A weaver in Nürnberg, c. 1524