round you: mechanical pencil, light fixture, chair, cell phone, and computer. You soon will note that all these objects, and their numerous individual components, l.3 are made from a variety of materials and have been produced and assembled into the items that you now see. You also will note that sofne objects, such as a paper clip, nail, spoon, and door key, are made of a single component. l.4 However, as shown in Table 1.1, the vast majority of objects around us consist of numerous l.5 individual pieces that are built and assembled by a combination of processes called L6 manufacturing.
The word manufacture first appeared in English in 1567 and is derived from the Latin manu factus, meaning “made by hand.” The word manufacturing first appeared in 1683, and the word production, which is often used interchangeably with the word l.8 manufacturing, first appeared sometime during the 15th century.
Manufacturing is concerned with making products. A manufactured product may itself be used to make other products, such as (a) a large press, to shape flat sheet metal into automobile bodies, (b) a drill, for producing holes, (c) industrial sawing ma- chines, for making clothing at high rates, and (d) numerous pieces of machinery, to pro- duce an endless variety of individual items, ranging from thin wire for guitars and electric motors to crankshafts and connecting rods for automotive engines (Fig. I.1).
Note that items such as bolts, nuts, and paper clips are discrete products, mean- ing individual items. By contrast, a roll of aluminum foil, a spool of wire, and metal or plastic tubing are continuous products, which are then cut into individual pieces of various lengths for specific purposes.
Because a manufactured item typically starts with raw materials, which are then
L9 Lean Production and Agile Manufacturing 32
|.l0 Manufacturing Costs and Global Competition