The machine industry or machinery industry is a subsector of the industry, that produces and maintains machines for consumers, the industry, and most other companies in the economy.
This machine industry traditionally belongs to the heavy industry. Nowadays, many smaller industrial manufacturing companies in this branch are considered part of the light industry. Most machine tool manufacturers in the machinery industry are called machine factories.
The machine industry is a subsector of the industry that produces a range of products from power tools, different types of machines, and domestic technology to factory equipment etc. On the one hand the machine industry provides:
These means of production are called capital goods, because a certain amount of capital is invested. Much of those production machines require regular maintenance, which becomes supplied specialized companies in the machine industry.
On the other end the machinery industry supplies consumer goods, including kitchen appliances, refrigerators, washers, dryers and a like. Production of radio and television, however, is generally considered belonging to the electrical equipment industry. The machinery industry itself is a major customer of the steel industry.
The production of the machinery industry varies widely from single-unit production and series production to mass production. [1] Single-unit production is about constructing unique products, which are specified in specific customer requirements. Due to modular design such devices and machines can often be manufactured in small series, which significantly reduces the costs. From a certain stage in the production, the specific customer requirements are built-in, and the unique product is created. [1]
The machinery industry came into existence during the Industrial Revolution. Companies in this emerging field grew out of iron foundries, shipyards, forges and repair shops. [2] Often companies were a combination of machine factory and shipyard. Early in the 20th century several motorcycle and automobile manufacturers began their own machine factories.
Prior to the industrial revolution a variety of machines existed such as clocks, weapons and running gear for mills (watermill, windmill, horse mill etc.) Production of these machines were on much smaller scale in artisan workshops mostly for the local or regional market. With the advent of the industrial revolution manufacturing began of composite tools with more complex construction, such as steam engines and steam generators for the evolving industry and transport. [2] In addition, the emerging machine factories started making machines for production machines as textile machinery, compressors, agricultural machinery, and engines for ships.
During the first decades of the industrial revolution in England, from 1750, there was a concentration of labor usually in not yet mechanized factories. Many new machines were invented, which were initially made by the inventors themselves. Early in the 18th century, the first steam engines, the Newcomen engine, came into use throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines.
In the 1770s James Watt significantly improved this design. He introduced a steam engine easy employable to supply a large amounts of energy, which set the mechanization of factories underway. In England certain cities concentrated on making specific products, such as specific types of textiles or pottery. Around these cities specialized machinery industry arose in order to enable the mechanization of the plants. Hereby late in the 18th century arose the first machinery industry in the UK and also in Germany and Belgium.
The Industrial Revolution received a further boost with the upcoming railways. These arose at the beginning of the 19th century in England as innovation in the mining industry. The work in coal mines was hard and dangerous, and so there was a great need for tools to ease this work. In 1804, Richard Trevithick placed the first steam engine on rails, and was in 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened, intended to transport coals from the mine to the port. In 1835 the first train drove in continental Europe between Mechelen and Brussels, and in the Netherlands in 1839 the first train drove between Amsterdam and Haarlem. For the machinery industry this brought all sorts of new work with new machinery for metallurgy, machine tool for metalworking, production of steam engines for trains with all its necessities etc.
In time the market for the machine industry became wider, specialized products were manufactured for a greater national and often international market. For example, it was not uncommon in the second half of the 19th century that American steelmakers ordered their production in England, where new steelmaking techniques were more advanced. In the far east Japan would import these product until the early 1930s, the creation of an own machinery industry got underway.
The term "machinery industry" came into existence later in the 19th century. One of the first times this branch of industry was recognized as such, and was investigated, was in a production statistics of 1907 created by the British Ministry of Trade and Industry. In this statistic the output of the engineering industry, was divided into forty different categories, including for example, agricultural machinery, machinery for the textile industry and equipment, and parts for train and tram. [3]
The inventions of new propulsion techniques based on electric motors, internal combustion engines and gas turbines brought a new generation of machines in the 20th century from cars to household appliances. Not only the product range of the machinery industry increased considerably, but especially smaller machines could also deliver products in much greater numbers fabricated in mass production. With the rise of mass production in other parts of the industry, there was also a high demand for manufacturing and production systems, to increase the entire production.
Shortage of labor in agriculture and industry at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, raised the need for further mechanization of production, which required for more specific machines. The rise of the computer made further automation of production possible, which in turn set new demands on the machinery industry.
The machinery industry produces different kind of products, for example, engines, pumps, logistics equipment; for different kind of markets from the agriculture industry, food & beverage industry, manufacturing industry, health industry, and amusement industry till different branches of the consumer market. As such companies in the machine industry can be classified by product of market. [4]
In the world of today, all kinds of Industry classifications exists. Some classifications recognize the machine industry as a specific class, and offer a subdivision for this field. For example, the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification of 1993, developed by the Statistics Netherlands, give the following breakdown of the machinery industry:
SIC code | Description sector | Products (according to the Standard Industrial Classification of the CBS 1993) |
---|---|---|
291 | Manufacture of for the production of mechanical energy, and application and overhaul | Engines and turbines, pumps and compressors, valves, gears, bearings and other gear. |
292 | Manufacture of other general-purpose machinery and equipment | Industrial furnaces and burners, lifting equipment, lifting equipment and other transport equipment; machines and equipment for industrial refrigeration and air conditioning; machinery and equipment |
293 | Manufacture of agricultural machinery and equipment | Agricultural tractors; agricultural machinery and agricultural implements |
294 | Manufacture of machine tools | Machine tools |
295 | Manufacture of machinery for specific industrial activities and devices | Machines for iron - and steel production; machines for mineral extraction and construction; machines and devices for the food and beverage industry; machines and equipment for the textile, clothing, leather and leather products industry; machinery and equipment for paper and paperboard production; Other machinery and equipment |
296 | Manufacture of weapons and ammunition | Weapons and ammunition |
297 | Manufacture of domestic appliances | electrical household appliances; non-electric domestic appliances |
This composition of the machinery industry has been significantly altered with the latest revision of the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification of 1993. The Standard Industrial Classification of 1974 broke down the machinery industry into nine sectors:
It may be clear that classification is by markets, and the more recent classification is by product.
The machine industry makes a very diverse range of products. A selection:
In ASEAN, the machine industry is a vital part of the region's economic structure. As of 2023, the industry employed approximately 2.5 million people across member countries. The sector generated a combined turnover of around $120 billion, with about 65% of this revenue coming from exports.
The ASEAN region is home to roughly 12,000 active companies in the machine industry, with the majority being small and medium-sized enterprises. Around 90% of these companies employ fewer than 500 people. On average, each employee in this sector generates approximately $48,000 in revenue annually.
Prominent companies in the ASEAN machine industry include ST Engineering (Singapore), Aikawa Iron Works (Thailand), and San Miguel Corporation (Philippines). The industry's significant growth can be attributed to favorable macroeconomic policies, open trade regimes, and increasing demand for manufactured goods both within the region and globally.
ASEAN's machine industry has been significantly influenced by advancements in automation and digital infrastructure, contributing to increased productivity and competitiveness on a global scale [5]
In Germany, in 2011 about 900,000 people were employed [6] in the machine industry and an estimated of 300,000 abroad. The combined turnover of the sector was €238 billion, of which 60% came from export. There were about 6,600 active companies, and 95% of those companies employed less than 500 people. Each employee generated an average of 148,000 Euro. Some of the largest companies in Germany are DMG Mori Seiki AG, GEA Group, Siemens AG, and ThyssenKrupp.
In the French machinery industry in 2009 about 650,000 people were employed, and the sector generated a turnover of 44 billion euros. Because of the crisis, the turnover of the sector had fallen by 15 percent. Due to stronger consumer spending and continuing demand from the energy sector and transport sector, the damage of the crisis was still limited. [7] Alternatively, some companies decided to focus their request on used industrial equipment. This guarantee attractive prices and better time delivery. [8] [9]
In Japan, the machine industry plays a significant role in the economy, employing a considerable number of people and generating substantial revenue. As of 2023, approximately 1.5 million people were employed in the machine tool industry. The combined turnover of the sector was estimated to be around $60 billion, with about 70% of the revenue coming from exports. [10] [11]
Japan is home to about 3,000 active companies in the machine industry, with 85% of these companies employing fewer than 500 people. The average revenue generated per employee in the industry is approximately $40,000. Some of the largest and most influential companies in Japan's machine industry include Fanuc Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and DMG Mori Seiki Co., Ltd.
In the Netherlands in 1996, a total of some 93,000 workers were employed in the machinery industry, with approximately 2,500 companies present. In 1000 of these companies there were working 20 or more employees. [1] In the Netherlands, according to the Chamber of Commerce in this subsector of the industry in 2011 some 15,000 companies were active. [12] Some of the largest companies in the Netherlands are Lely, Philips and Stork B.V.
U.S. machinery industries had total domestic and foreign sales of $413.7 billion in 2011. The United States is the world’s largest market for machinery, as well as the third-largest supplier. American manufacturers held a 58.5 percent share of the U.S. domestic market. [13]
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high-tech, but it is most commonly applied to industrial design, in which raw materials from the primary sector are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such goods may be sold to other manufacturers for the production of other more complex products, or distributed via the tertiary industry to end users and consumers.
Mass production, also known as flow production, series production, series manufacture, 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.
Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text, a machine is defined as follows:
Every machine is constructed for the purpose of performing certain mechanical operations, each of which supposes the existence of two other things besides the machine in question, namely, a moving power, and an object subject to the operation, which may be termed the work to be done. Machines, in fact, are interposed between the power and the work, for the purpose of adapting the one to the other.
The Škoda Works was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century, founded by Czech engineer Emil Škoda in 1859 in Plzeň, called the Kingdom of Bohemia at that time. It is the predecessor of today's Škoda Auto, Doosan Škoda Power and Škoda Transportation companies.
The Industrial Age is a period of history that encompasses the changes in economic and social organization that began around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines such as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
The factory system is a method of manufacturing whereby workers and manufacturing equipment are centralized in a factory, the work is supervised and structured through a division of labor, and the manufacturing process is mechanized. Because of the high capital cost of machinery and factory buildings, factories are typically privately owned by wealthy individuals or corporations who employ the operative labor. Use of machinery with the division of labor reduced the required skill-level of workers and also increased the output per worker.
Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial settings such as factories, flour mills, sawmills, textile mills, steel mills, refineries, mines, and ore mills.
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Fegyver- és Gépgyártó Részvénytársaság, known as FÉG, is a Hungarian industrial conglomerate founded on 24 February 1891 in Csepel. The company came under the ownership of MPF Industry Group in 2010. It was an important arms manufacturing company before World War II. Since the acquisition, FÉG is one of the biggest exporters of HVAC products to the international markets in the East-Central European heating device industry.
The Case Corporation was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and construction equipment. Founded, in 1842, by Jerome Increase Case as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, it operated under that name for most of a century. For another 66 years it was the J. I. Case Company, and was often called simply Case. In the late 19th century, Case was one of America's largest builders of steam engines, producing self-propelled portable engines, traction engines and steam tractors. It was a major producer of threshing machines and other harvesting equipment. The company also produced various machinery for the U.S. military. In the 20th century, Case was among the ten largest builders of farm tractors for many years. In the 1950s its construction equipment line became its primary focus, with agricultural business second.
Manufacturing engineering or production engineering is a branch of professional engineering that shares many common concepts and ideas with other fields of engineering such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, and industrial engineering. Manufacturing engineering requires the ability to plan the practices of manufacturing; to research and to develop tools, processes, machines, and equipment; and to integrate the facilities and systems for producing quality products with the optimum expenditure of capital.
Agricultural engineering, also known as agricultural and biosystems engineering, is the field of study and application of engineering science and designs principles for agriculture purposes, combining the various disciplines of mechanical, civil, electrical, food science, environmental, software, and chemical engineering to improve the efficiency of farms and agribusiness enterprises as well as to ensure sustainability of natural and renewable resources.
The United Kingdom, where the Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th century, has a long history of manufacturing, which contributed to Britain's early economic growth. During the second half of the 20th century, there was a steady decline in the importance of manufacturing and the economy of the United Kingdom shifted toward services. Manufacturing, however, remains important for overseas trade and accounted for 44% of goods exports in 2014. In June 2010, manufacturing in the United Kingdom accounted for 8.2% of the workforce and 12% of the country's national output. The East Midlands and West Midlands were the regions with the highest proportion of employees in manufacturing. London had the lowest at 2.8%.
CNH Industrial N.V. is an American-Italian multinational corporation with global headquarters in Basildon, United Kingdom, but controlled and mostly owned by the multinational investment company Exor, which in turn is controlled by the Agnelli family. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands. The seat of the company is in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a principal office in London, England.
The Ministry of Industry is a ministry in the Government of Myanmar that produces consumer products such as pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs, textiles, ceramics, paper and chemical products, home utilities and construction materials, assorted types of vehicles, earth-moving equipment, diesel engines, automotive parts, turbines and generators, CNC machines, transformers, agricultural machines, rubber and tires, etc.
A machine factory is a company that produces machines. These companies traditionally belong to the heavy industry sector in comparison to a more consumer oriented and less capital intensive light industry. Today many companies make more sophisticated smaller machines, and they belong to the light industry. The economic sector of machine factories is called the machine industry.
The agricultural machinery industry or agricultural engineering industry is the part of the industry, that produces and maintain tractors, agricultural machinery and agricultural implements used in farming or other agriculture. This branch is considered to be part of the machinery industry.
Láng Machine Factory was a machine factory in Hungary that played an important role in supplying Hungarian power plants and factories with steam engines, turbines and diesel motors.
KEMNA BAU Andreae GmbH & Co. KG is one of the largest German construction companies and the largest street infrastructure provider in Germany with its headquarters inside the country. The company was originally founded under the name of J.Kemna/Breslau and was a Steam engine, steam tractor, locomotive, steam plow, road roller and tractor factory in Wroclaw, part of Germany until 1945. It was one of Germany's largest producers in this industry and the largest steam-plow producer in Europe during the early 21st century.
Industry plays an important role in the economy of Belarus. In 2020, industry accounted for 25.5% of Belarusian GDP. Share of manufacturing in Belarusian GDP was 21.3% in 2019. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe described Belarus as having "a well-developed industrial sector and highly skilled workforce". In 2020, 23.5% of the Belarusian workforce was employed in industry. In 2019, total industrial production amounted to 115.7 billion Belarusian rubles ; in 2020, it rose to Br 116.5 billion. Belarusian industry is export-oriented: in 2020, 61.2% of industrial output was exported. The most important sector is food industry. Other well-developed sectors of industry include chemical industry, automotive industry and manufacturing of other machinery equipment.
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