How Things Are Made
A Journey Through the Hidden World of Manufacturing
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED AS A FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE
An illuminating tour through the world of manufacturing and its seismic influence on our lives, from internationally renowned expert Tim Minshall
We live in a manufactured world. Unless you are floating naked through space, you are right now in direct contact with multiple manufactured products, including furniture, technology, clothing, and even food. And yet the processes by which these things appear in our lives are virtually invisible. How often do we stop to think: Where do the things we buy actually come from? How are they made, and how do they make their way into our hands?
The answers can be found in How Things Are Made, which traces the surprising paths taken by everyday items to reach consumers, from design to creation to delivery. Innovation expert Tim Minshall takes us on a journey through the manufacturing world, from the smallest job shops to mega-factories, from global shipping hubs and the complex logistics of local delivery to your door, revealing the inner workings of the system that runs 24-7-365 to make and deliver the things we need—or want—to live our daily lives, including cars, cakes, phones, planes, drugs, and medical devices. Along the way, he explores how we can improve the fragility of our global manufacturing system and the impact it has on the natural world, presenting a path to a truly sustainable future.
Brimming with energy and lively examples, How Things Are Made maps the awe-inspiring global system of manufacturing that enables virtually every aspect of our existence. By making sense of this surprising and hidden world, we gain the insights to improve supply chain resilience and make better choices for ourselves, our communities, and the planet.
This illuminating tour of the modern supply chain reveals:
Globalization's True Cost: The surprising fragility of the global systems we depend on for everything from phones to prescription drugs, and how the pandemic exposed the cracks.Inside the Factory: A journey from the smallest job shops to mega-factories that reveals the fascinating inner workings of modern production.A Sustainable Future: How innovations in manufacturing are creating a path toward zero waste and a more sustainable planet for us all.Technological Innovation: From the Industrial Revolution to modern automation, an expert's look at how technology has shaped—and will continue to shape—the world of making things.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this entertaining debut report, Minshall, an innovation professor at the University of Cambridge, delves into the complex systems that produce the world's goods and transport them to market. Minshall details the manufacturing processes for myriad products, describing, for instance, how making toilet paper involves cutting down trees with tractor-like harvesting machines and shredding them into wood chips that are transformed into pulp by heat and chemicals before getting "sprayed" onto wire mesh and drying as paper. "Manufacturing... is about making trade-offs," he contends, discussing how one Premier Foods factory produces more than 250,000 cherry Bakewell tarts per day by sacrificing the ability to make a diverse range of goods for more efficiently creating a single product in high quantities. Tracing recent trends in manufacturing and logistics, Minshall notes that Covid-era supply chain disruptions have renewed interest in moving factories closer to consumers, describing how the difficulties of keeping Covid vaccines refrigerated during transportation led some pharmaceutical companies to cram equipment into shipping containers that allow scientists to make vaccines on-site wherever infrastructure can't support cold storage. The complicated hidden backstories of ordinary items fascinate, and the conversational prose keeps the narrative moving even through involved logistical discussions. This will satisfy anyone who's ever wondered where their favorite products come from.
