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An efficient manufacturing process in which components are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics, resulting in extremely fast production.
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Everything sold at Wal-Mart was mass-produced at an assembly line. |
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An industry critical to the health of an area's economy.
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Auto manufacturing is one of the basic industries of the USA. |
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A point at which a product is transferred from one shipping method to another.
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An airport could be a break-of-bulk point between air and land transportation. |
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Industrial land abandoned or underused due to real or perceived environmental contamination.
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The Rocky Flats nuclear plant became a brownfield after the Cold War. |
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An industry whose products increase in size or weight during manufacturing.
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Soft drink bottling--from empty bottles to full bottles, there is an obvious weight gain. |
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An industry whose products decrease in size or weight during manufacturing.
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Automobile manufacturing--it takes various small components and combines them to form a large product. |
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The monetary assets that a business possesses.
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Technology startups, especially in California's Silicon Valley, often need to convince prominent venture capitalists in order to gain essential capital for their business. |
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An industry, often manufacturing, that groups numerous independent producers, generally working from home.
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A modern-day cottage industry could be Etsy.com, a website allowing anyone to purvey their handmade goods. |
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A process of sociopolitical change in an area's economy in which industrial capacity and activity declines, to be replaced by information-based business. |
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An industry that can be located anywhere without any ramifications.
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Although software companies may not technically fit in the category of heavy industry, they do constitute a footloose industry, as nothing truly has to be shipped. |
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The increasing interconnectedness of the world.
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The Internet allows one, from anywhere, to access any other computer in the world. |
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An efficient manner of production, pioneered by Henry Ford, in which all employees, regardless of status, were treated equally, employees performed menial, repetitive jobs for higher wages, and products were highly homogenized.
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The assembly line is a hallmark of Fordist production. |
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The production of a product or service within an economy.
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Petroleum extraction is a very lucrative industry. |
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A stage at which an industry runs at its former location despite the disappearance of the location's desirable site factors.
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To some degree, the factories in America's "Rust Belt" are running on industrial inertia, as Mexican auto manufacturing has proven lucrative. |
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A period from the 18th to the 20th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times. Its hearth was Great Britain, but it quickly diffused to Western Europe, and, by proxy, its colonies.
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n/a |
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The basic services and facilities needed for an area's economy to function
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India's lack of reliable infrastructure has slowed its still meteoric economic growth. |
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The cost advantages that a business gains due to expansion.
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Larger industries need to purchase more raw materials. Generally, the more that is purchased, the lower the unit price gets. Hence, expansion is beneficial for industry. See warehouse club stores like Costco and their price reductions... |
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An industry where a high percentage of the overhead costs are consumed by paying employees.
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The textile industry needs to hire numerous dexterous workers in order to operate spinning machines. |
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A theory of industrial location, developed by Alfred Weber, that locates industries based on their classifications as "bulk-reducing" or "bulk-gaining industries."
Ex:
See the "bulk-reducing" and "bulk-gaining" flashcards... |
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The summation of the works of Alfred Weber, Von Thunen, and others, concerning the location of economic activity.
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See the flashcards on "least-cost theory," "bulk-gaining," and "bulk-reducing." |
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A factory owned by an MDC company but situated in an adjacent LDC country, very close to the border between the two countries, offering a compromise between cheap labor and proximity to markets.
Ex:
The factories near the US/Mexico border are the original maquiladoras... |
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The large-scale production of standardized products.
Ex:
Most automobiles are mass-produced. |
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| New international division of labor |
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A spatial division of labor, caused by globalization, in which industry relocates from MDCs to LDCs due to the low labor costs in LDCs.
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This is why almost all affordable consumer goods are made in China now. |
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The usage of third-parties to perform functions for a business.
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MDC companies hire independent call centers in India for their affordable prices. |
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A recent method of mass production focusing on producing unique varieties of non-homogenous products, giving autonomy and problem-solving ability to employees, and the proliferation of knowledge-based industrial careers.
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Toyota has fully embraced this method of production, enlikening it to Japanese culture (kaizen). |
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The industries taking place in the primary sector of the economy.
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Oil extraction. |
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The substances from which a finished product is produced.
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Wood is the raw material paper is made from. |
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A major American heavy industrial region, situated in the states around the Great Lakes.
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All major American automakers have plants here--hence its name. |
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Three economic factors based on the location of a factory: land, labor, and capital.
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Maquiladoras illustrate an excellent compromise of all three site factors. |
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Economic factors considering the transportation of raw materials and products to and from a factory, concerning costs and methods (ship, rail, truck, or air).
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Bulk-reducing industries locate close to inputs; bulk-gaining industries locate close to markets. |
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The industries of the secondary sector of the economy.
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Petroleum refining. |
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A catchall term for cloth-based products.
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Clothing is a commonplace textile product. |
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A mechanical system of weights and pulleys to determine the ideal location of a factory based on the costs of transportation to and from the factory.
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n/a |
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A German economist who pioneered the least-cost theory of industry.
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n/a |
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