Industry

We explain what the industry is, its main characteristics and its history. Also, what types of industries exist and some examples.

What is the industry?

The industry It is the set of human activities capable of transforming raw materials into finished or semi-finished products through the performance of work that involves tools or machinery, human resources and energy consumption.

Industries normally make up the so-called secondary sector of the economy, that is, the one that receives raw materials and transforms them into marketable products. However, they can also belong to the primary sector, as is the case of extractive industries.

Thus, all production tasks from raw materials and also those that use semi-finished products, the result of previous industrial activities, are part of the industry.

The ability to produce more and faster is the spirit that guides industrial production contemporary. This goes hand in hand with technology and engineering, that is, mass production (so-called Fordism) and automation, even when this implies replacing human workers with machines.

The industry is a fundamental link in the production of today's society, at the same time one of the main factors of risk environmental and ecological. Its sustained impact since the times of the Industrial Revolution begins to be undeniable at the beginning of the 21st century.

Industry characteristics

In general terms, the industry has the following characteristics:

• It is a productive activity belonging to the secondary (and sometimes the primary) sector.
• It massively transforms raw materials into finished (final) or semi-finished (intermediate) products.
• It requires work carried out by workers, normally through machinery and/or tools, and energy consumption.
• It draws on technological innovations and scientific advances to improve its process.
• It is the sector that employs the majority of workers in developed countries.
• It generally underproduces polluting materials that can be very harmful to the ecosystem.

Industry history

The industry has always been present in the desire of human beings to adapt the world to their needs, to be able to live longer, better and with less effort. This, however, was never as evident as between the 18th and 19th centuries, when the so-called Industrial Revolution occurred. At that time, humanity reached the highest level of capacity for the transformation of raw materials.

This explosion of industry took its first steps after the fall of medieval feudalism, when the population migrated from rural areas to the cities, giving rise to a new workforce that was beginning to become necessary: ​​the working class. Also with the Industrial Revolution was developed capitalism as mode of production.

During the 19th century and the middle of the 20th, the exploitation industrial workforce labor was the greatest contribution to the GDP of European nations also allowing the emergence of specialization and new technologies, hand in hand with the new scientific advances available.

This new industrial society divided the world between industrialized (or developed) countries, that is, those that made the leap towards productive and independent economies; and non-industrialized (or underdeveloped) countries, dedicated to the sale of raw materials and, therefore, dependent on foreign economies.

Types of industries

There are different types of industries and different ways of classifying them depending on the type of products or processes that characterize them.

If industries are distinguished according to the destination of your products it is possible to differentiate between:

• Basic or heavy industries. They are those that, using large quantities of raw materials and energy, are dedicated to obtaining semi-finished or “base” products, which serve as input to other types of industries.
• Capital goods industries. They are those that, from semi-finished products, manufacture infrastructure and machinery intended to be used in other industrial processes, such as machines and tools.
• Consumer goods industries. They are those that, from semi-finished products or, sometimes, raw materials, obtain consumer goods that go directly to satisfy the needs of the consumer.

On the other hand, if industries are distinguished according to the type of category to which their productive activities are dedicated, it is possible to differentiate between:

• Steel or metallurgical industry. It is one that is dedicated to the transformation and alloy of metals, to obtain goods that other industries can take advantage of.
• Chemical industry. It is one that is dedicated to obtaining chemical elements and chemical compounds, which can be used by other industries or directly used by consumers.
• petrochemical industry. It is one that is dedicated to the chemical transformation of oil, that is, to its refinement to obtain various derivatives, such as gasoline, kerosene or plastic.
• automobile industry. It is one that is dedicated to the construction of motor vehicles, such as cars or motorcycles.
• Food industry. It is one that is dedicated to producing foods of a diverse nature, whether foods, drinks or ingredients for the kitchen.
• Textile industry. It is one that is dedicated to the production of fabrics and fabrics for the making of clothing and other products, or directly to the manufacture of clothing pieces.
• pharmaceutical industry. It is one that is dedicated to the combination of organic and inorganic compounds to obtain various types of medicines, supplements and other health supplies.
• arms industry. It is one that is dedicated to the production of military or police weapons, such as rifles, tanks, missiles or ammunition.
• Industry computing. It is one that is dedicated to the production of parts, accessories and spare parts for computers and other computer systems.
• mechanical industry. It is one that is dedicated to producing machinery of various kinds and spare parts or tools for its repair.
• fur industry. It is one that is dedicated to the work of animal skins to produce footwear, clothing and other similar products with them.
• Energy industry. It is one whose sole purpose is to obtain energy to satisfy the electrical needs of the population and other industries, using mechanical, atomic or chemical processes.

Importance of the industry

The emergence of the industry introduced great changes in the way of life of humanity to the point of forever changing the paradigms of society.

Thanks to the industry, the productive capacities of humanity were maximized. Never before in history has so much been produced, so quickly and so efficiently as after the Industrial Revolution. In fact, only industry made possible the emergence of contemporary consumer society, in which all goods are produced much faster than they are needed, and therefore are always at hand.

The planet, however, suffers the transformations caused by industrial activity, such as pollution or the voracious use of available resources. Many of these changes negatively affect the ecosystem, deteriorating the home of animal and plant species to the point of causing them to become extinct.

Examples of industries

Some examples of industrial initiatives are:

• The telephone industry. It is one that is dedicated to the marketing of telephone terminals and the supplies necessary for their operation, without, however, getting involved in the offer of telephone service. Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson are examples of this.
• Automotive industry. It is one that is dedicated to the production of automobiles and, in some cases, motorcycles and similar vehicles equipped with an internal combustion engine. Honda, Ford and Mercedes Benz are examples of this.
• Oil industry. It is one that is dedicated to the extraction and marketing of oil, and sometimes its subsequent refinement. PDVSA, British Petrol, Shell and Texaco are examples of this.

Manufacture

It is called “manufacturing” p manufacturing process of an object that is, to the economic production of consumer goods. It is a term that encompasses a wide range of productive activities, from the artisanal to the most technological, but is usually used more or less as a synonym for “industry.”

However, We often speak of “manufacturing industries” to refer to those that produce goods and thus differentiate them from those dedicated to the extraction of raw materials, such as the mining industry, or to the generation of energy.

References

• Plana, M. (2018). Industries, 16th to 20th centuries. UNAM Editions.
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023). Industry. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• National Autonomous University of Mexico. (2017). Industrial revolution. CCH Academic Portal. https://e1.portalacademico.cch.unam.mx/