Industry it is the concentration of productive activities aimed at transforming raw materials into goods for the most different types of consumption.
Its importance is so great nowadays that almost everything we consume and use is processed or produced by the industry.
Industry Evolution
The historical evolution of the industry can be recognized in three stages: handicraft, manufacturing and machinofacture.
Craftsmanship – stage in which the producer (craftsman) alone performs all the stages of production and even the commercialization of the product. The artisanal way of producing prevailed until around the 17th century, but it can still be found in several countries around the world.
manufacturing – at this stage, there was already a division of labor, where each worker performed a task or was responsible for part of the production. Although there was already the use of simple machines, production depended fundamentally on manual work.
The manufacturing stage corresponds, in general, to the transformation of the artisan into a wage earner. Manufacturing characterized the early stage of capitalism, in the 17th and mid-18th centuries.
Although the term manufacture corresponds to the second stage of industry evolution, it is also used to designate industrialized (manufactured) products.
machinery – is the process started in the 18th century with the Industrial Revolution. It is characterized by the massive use of machines and energy sources such as coal and oil, large-scale production, great division and specialization of work.
During the First Industrial Revolution, mechanization extended from the textile sector to metallurgy and factories employed large numbers of workers.
From the end of the 19th century, a period known as Second Industrial Revolution, with the use of new technologies, the whole world started to buy and use industrialized products manufactured in large centers.
During this period, the large industries had branches in several countries, the multinationals or transnationals.
In the mid-twentieth century, after the two great wars, the capitalist world reorganized itself. The mobility of companies, capital and the technological revolution accentuated the internationalization of the economy.
Large industries started to incorporate modern technologies, starting the phase of Third Industrial Revolution and also from globalization.
Read more at Fordism and Taylorism.
Industry 4.0
World industry is undergoing a process of change as sharply as that which took place in the Industrial Revolution. This set of transformations was called 4.0 in reference to the power of the engines.
Industry 4.0 is characterized by joining three factors to its production line: technological progress, digitization and innovation.
1. technological progress that allowed to cheapen and expand the use of computers has created increasingly powerful and cheaper machines.
Industrial automation reduces production costs and increases product quality. Software that integrates production lines is creating smart factories. Through sensors, machinery and product exchange information during the manufacturing process.
The auto industry is among the most robotic in the world: robots with their mechanized arms do everything from the manufacturing process to the final quality tests. Employees, in a reduced number, follow everything through computer screens.
2. THE huge amount of digital information available in some segments. Product conception, testing with new materials, new parts, design, factory architecture, organizing the production line, stocking materials, everything is digital.
In fact, 3D virtual technology is already being used to test new products.
3. You advances in the area of innovation it is another great tool for industries that can recombine existing technologies and make contributions in the area of design, new materials, management and production.
In just 15 years, computers and the internet have already revolutionized industries. Although it is a worldwide phenomenon, it is more present in the United States, Japan and Europe.
This technological evolution eliminates jobs and skilled labor is increasingly in demand.
Brazilian industry
An industrialized country, in addition to offering jobs, can meet many of its domestic consumption needs, reduce its imports and increase its exports.
In this way, Brazil seeks to favor industrial activity, despite economic and regional disparities. Below we can see the spatial distribution of industries in the national territory.
According to data from the Industry Portal, from 2017, Brazilian industry contributes with R$ 1.2 trillion to the Brazilian economy per year. This means that 22% of the GDP Brazilian comes from industrial activities.
However, the growth of the Brazilian industry is hampering the lack of skilled labor and especially the tax burden. Therefore, the capacity of the Brazilian industrial park ends up working below what would be possible.
Read too:
- Types of Industries
- Industrialization in Brazil
- Industrial Society
- cultural industry
- Toyotism
- Sectors of Economy
