Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the making of goods from raw materials with the help of labor, machines, tools and chemical or biological processing. It sits in the secondary sector of the economy and covers a very wide range of human activity, from handicraft production at a bench to high technology plants, though the word is most often used for industrial production on a large scale. The finished goods may be sold on to other manufacturers who build more complex products such as aircraft, household appliances, furniture, sports equipment or automobiles, or they may reach consumers through wholesalers and retailers. The process generally begins with product design and the specification of materials, which are then changed step by step into the desired product, and contemporary manufacturing takes in every intermediate stage of producing and joining the components of a product. Some industries, such as semiconductor and steel making, prefer the word fabrication. The sector is closely tied to engineering and industrial design, and manufacturing engineering is the branch of engineering that designs and optimizes these steps.