Factory

A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is a large industrial building where workers manufacture goods or products. Most modern factories have large warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Archetypally, factories gather and concentrate resources -- workers, capital and plant.

Word usage

Before becoming associated with large-scale manufacturing, the term factory might refer to:

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• a foreign-based trading station. Proto-colonies in West Africa and India often featured such factories.
• China also had factories, or warehouses, run by factors. These were restricted to a special area in Canton from 1760 until 1842 under the Canton System.
• the activity of factors (mercantile agents).

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of factory as a manufacturing site, plant or works back as far as 1618.

Related Topics:
Oxford English Dictionary - 1618

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