Factory System

The Factory System and the Industrial Revolution

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, newer, more innovative and mechanized, textile mills were popping up all over Britain, thanks to the inventions of Richard Arkwright. These mechanized mills required a form of work that was different from the previous “cottage industries” that had been creating textiles for centuries.

The Factory System and the Industrial Revolution: Sir Richard Arkwright

Sir Richard Arkwright was a British inventor and entrepreneur who rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution. His invention of the spinning machine streamlined textile production by breaking it up piecemeal and having multiple laborers working on the production line.

Fig. 1 - depiction of Arkwright's spinning machine

The machines could be run all day and night long and didn’t require skilled labor to operate. All the workers needed to do was feed the machine cotton and replace full bobbins with empty ones. This meant the mill could operate for 24 hours; employing multiple shifts of cheap, unskilled laborers, and producing mass quantities of cotton fabric.

The Domestic System vs. The Factory System

The domestic system, defined by cottage industries, was the main method of manufacturing goods prior to adoption of the factory system. Below is a chart contrasting the main differences between the two systems of manufacturing.

Impact and Significance of the Factory System

The factory system changed not only the way people worked, but also where they worked and lived. Unskilled laborers moved from rural towns to urban centers in order to work at mills and factories. Goods that were once handcrafted by artisans were now being mass-produced.

Impact and Significance of the Factory System: Urbanization

The factory system consisted of multiple workers assembling a product piece-meal, meaning it was not a system that would function efficiently in rural areas. Industrialists needed a large number of workers, and so they built their factories in city centers. In turn, the factory system encouraged people to move en masse to cities where they could work. Most workers lived in crowded housing close to where they were employed. Due to the rapid expansion of cities, these areas were often developed hastily, resulting in a poor quality of life.

Impact and Significance of the Factory System: The Exploitation of Workers

Since most of the “work” was being done by machines, industrialists who built and owned factories didn’t need skilled workers to create goods. Instead, they required hands to operate the machines, which at the time required no skill or education to do. This meant men, women, and children were all equally capable in the eyes of factory owners.

In fact, women and children could be paid less, creating a larger profit margin for the capitalist investors. This drove factory wages down to levels that made life barely sustainable for the factory workers. And this was in addition to the horrific work environment. Conditions were cramped, poorly lit, and unsanitary, leading to accidents and the spread of disease among the workforces. There was also no security with the job, so people could be fired at the will of the supervisor or factory owner.

These harsh conditions led to worker’s revolts, and, in the late 19th century, workers started to organize into trade unions in order to campaign for better wages and working conditions for themselves.

Factory System Example: Henry Ford and the Assembly Line

The factory system split manufacturing into a puzzle. No longer was a single artisan focused on putting the big picture together by themselves, now a team of laborers each worked on one small piece, carting around the end product from station to station. For years, this process went along unchanged, until Henry Ford found a way to streamline it further.

Fig. 3 - Henry Ford with his Model T Car

In 1913, Henry Ford introduced the automated assembly line to his plan for manufacturing his Model T cars. Assembly lines were already in use at this point in time, however Ford changed it to an automated conveyor belt. This reduced the time spent between “stations”, as the worker could now focus on one task before getting started on the same task on a new vehicle. As a result of these efficiencies, the total time it took to complete a Ford Model T went from twelve hours, to about an hour and a half.