mass productionn.
/ˌmas prəˈdʌkʃn/, U.S. /ˈˌmæs prəˈdəkʃən/ Originally U.S.
The manufacture of goods in large quantities by an automated process. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > manufacture or production > [noun] > types of production
teamwork1870
mass production1893
secondary industry1930
flow production1937
mass customization1985
1893 Econ. Jrnl. 3 468 For the individual to anticipate mass-production..involves a greater outlay.
1918 Iron Age 7 Mar. 6/6 Mass production at the Winchester shops.
1922 G. T. Turner & B. Wood Man. Up-to-date Organisation 110 Mass Production is a continuous replica of a standardised master-pattern or design.
1930 L. Mumford in Archit. Rec. Jan. 20/1 One might call this the model T dilemma. Mass-production..suffers..from rigidity.
1947 J. Hayward Prose Lit. since 1939 26 Literary and historical biography was already a flourishing industry. What particular..forces were concerned in its mass-production cannot be investigated here.
1953 Life 8 June 7/3 (advt.) What finer start to easier housekeeping than this modern miracle of mass production! Whisks up stubborn dirt like magic.
1967 M. McLuhan & Q. Fiore Medium is Massage 50 Printing..provided the first uniformly repeatable ‘commodity’, the first assembly line—mass production.
1998 Daily Tel. 2 July 8/3 The first biochips,..able to analyse and perform thousands of biological reactions in seconds, are to go into mass production.
Compounds
General attributive.
ΚΠ
1912 Amer. Econ. Rev. 2 109 There is a broad survey of the evolution of the mass production system.
1929 W. Deeping Roper's Row xxxii. 353 The new world of smudged faces, mass-production man in the making.
1930 G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 25 Don't forget our racing motor boats and cars, sir: the finest on earth, and all individually designed. No cheap mass production stuff there.
1962 H. O. Beecheno Introd. Business Stud. x. 86 Mass-production methods have called for mass-selling methods.
1997 New Scientist 5 July 7/3 Mass-production micromachining could cut costs by as much as a factor of 10.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1893