Advantages and Disadvantages of Assembly Line （组装线的优缺点）.pdf

Name Date Advantages and Disadvantages of Assembly Line Manufacturing The assembly line was one of the key components of the Industrial Revolution. The principles of the assembly line allowed manufacturers to produce greatly increased amounts of products at lower cost and indirectly made for easier maintenance of products after their assembly. While the ideas behind assembly line manufacturing are a vital part of the way products are made and assembled today, it is also interesting to consider the disadvantages of these types of production systems. Advantages For manufacturers, the benefits of assembly line production are enormous. An inherent part of the idea of assembly lines is that each item produced from a certain product line is as close to identical as possible. This allows quick and easy assembly throughout the process, and it also means that maintenance and replacement of worn or broken parts is a much simpler task down the road. Prior to assembly line production, items were often made one at a time by hand by a single crafter. This meant that there were often great variations between one crafter’s work and the work of another crafter, and even among the products of a single crafter. If one part of a musket or tool were to break, it was no simple task to replace that part. Repairs and replacements had to be custom made to fit the specific item at hand. With standardized, interchangeable parts being a key part of the assembly line process, the next generation of manufacturing did not suffer as much from those issues of difficult repairs. If part of a product breaks, it can easily be replaced with an identical part matching the item. Generally speaking, assembly line production requires each person involved to only perform a small