Title: factory system | Overview, History, & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Factory system
Factory system
industry
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Factory system
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Content: factory system | Overview, History, & Facts | Britannica
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Factory system, system of manufacturing that began in the 18th century and is based on the concentration of industry into specialized—and often large—establishments. The system arose in the course of the Industrial Revolution. British factory
British factory interior, late 19th century. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (B1986.29.390)
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history of the organization of work: Genesis of the factory system
Over time the nature of technological change shifted from the introduction of new mechanical contrivances to developments in the application...
The factory system replaced the domestic system, in which individual workers used hand tools or simple machinery to fabricate goods in their own homes or in workshops attached to their homes. The use of waterpower and then the steam engine to mechanize processes such as cloth weaving in England in the second half of the 18th century marked the beginning of the factory system. This system was enhanced at the end of the 18th century by the introduction of interchangeable parts in the manufacture of muskets and, subsequently, other types of goods. Prior to this, each part of a musket (or anything else assembled from multiple components) had been individually shaped by a workman to fit with the other parts. In the new system, the musket parts were machined to such precise specifications that a part of any musket could be replaced by the same part from any other musket of the same design. This advance signaled the onset of mass production, in which standardized parts could be assembled by relatively unskilled workmen into complete finished products.