THE DISCUSSION ON FACTORIES

Set 1

(1) What kind of factories are there in your town?

(2) What factories were in your town 50 years ago?
(3) Do you think factories are the same all over the world?
(4) Would you like to work in a factory?
(5) Which country do you think has the most efficient factories?
(6) Have overseas companies built factories in your country?
(7) What do factories need to do to protect the environment?
(8) How have mass production techniques in factories changed our lives?
(9) How have working conditions in factories changed since the Industrial Revolution?
(10) What should be done about multinational companies employing children in sweat shops?

Set 2

(1) Have you ever visited a factory and seen a production line?
(2) Should factories be full of workers or robots?
(3) Why do you think many countries copy Japanese factories?
(4) What do you think factories of the future will look like?
(5) What do you think the differences are working in a car factory and silicon chip factory?
(6) How did factories change societies?
(7) Do you think all factories need organized unions?
(8) What is your image of ‘fast food factories’?
(9) Do you think there were weapons factories in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule?
(10) Would you like to visit Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory?
Factory Vocabulary Words

Word Definition

Automation A technique that ensures the functioning of a machine or a group of machines with no
human assistance

Autonomous A unit of about ten people who are entrusted with the execution of a task, and whose
work team entire responsibility is assigned to this team

Contractor A person who undertakes the execution of a work by a company contract

Efficiency Ratio of usable energy supplied by a machine compared to the actual energy provided to it

Engineering Overall study of an industrial project in its technical, economic and financial characteristics

Facilities Factories and their machinery where various products are manufactured

Fields The different types of economic activity that combine the elements of production

Forecast Sales projections by product range and optimisation of resources to use

Handling Manual or mechanical processing and moving of goods for storage, shipment or sale

Labor Workers hired in the execution of a given task

Logistics The management of material flows and resources for the production of a factory

Maintenance The sustaining or restoring equipment to a predetermined state so as to ensure its

capacity to fulfil the intended task

Manufacturer Owner of a craft or industrial production company

Multi-skilled A worker who has the skills to carry out tasks in one or more branches of the industry
worker

Organised labour An organisation which ensures the collective and individual defence of workers’ rights

Operation Ensuring the production of a material, an ore, a product or a service

Overload Exceeding of a machine or a system’s actual capacity

 Word Definition

Production The process of transforming a raw material into a new product

Temporary A worker temporarily hired by a company to fill in for an absent employee on an ad hoc
worker basis

Cement works A plant that is specialised in concrete manufacturing

Distillery A plant for the production of liquor-based products

Flour mill Industrial plant for the transformation of seeds into flour

Forge Workshop where metals and alloys are mechanically transformed by heat or cold
processing

Foundry A foundry is a plant used to manufacture steel in bulk, into the shape of semi-
manufactured products

Manufactures Big industrial plants, grouping in the same workshop several equipments, each of them
being controlled by a single manager, carrying out various processes for the same
production

Paper mill A factory specialising in the processing of raw materials such as wood or other fibrous
materials into paper

Refinery A plant where raw materials are transformed into finished products, such as sugar, oil...

Spinning mill A factory that manufactures textile fabrics into threads

Steelworks Factory where steel is produced

Warehouse A place used as a shelter, for storing goods

Wire drawing Factory where steel is stretched into wire

Workshop Section of a factory where workers are doing the same task
Manufacturing Vocabulary Words

Word Definition

Construction A business of varying size that carries out building or civil infrastructure work
industry

Consumer good A manufactured product destined for the final consumer

Finished product An article manufactured or modified by a business from the raw materials

Industrialist Head of a business processing raw materials into finished goods

Machine-tool A mechanical equipment for executing a manufacturing or other repetitive task with
appropriate precision and power

Mass production A method of manufacturing in which products are linearly moved from station to
station until they take their final shape

Motor industry A business that closely links together embedded producers, developers, assemblers,
principals and sub-suppliers, as well as vehicles fit-out service providers

Oil industry A business which covers the oil and gas industry chain from the source to the consumer

Packaging Wrapping a product so that it can be stored, sold, used and consumed in the best
possible way

Plant A building or complex of buildings for industrial production

Procurement It is the purchase of goods, materials, pieces, etc. to be resold, transformed or stored

Production line The whole manufacturing processes required to create a finished product, from raw
materials to market release

Raw material All primary resources used in the creation or processing of a final or manufactured
product

Stock Quantity of goods in storage to sustain business activity

Stockout When a company’s stocks are insufficient to meet demand

Supplier A person who is in charge of the ordering of the necessary raw materials for the
 Word Definition

manufacturing of the product, and making sure that they are delivered in time and
quantity

Value added The gains generated in the production process

Waste Any good at any stage of the supply chain is lost, dumped, damaged, etc.

Work force The number of workers hired by the firm under an employment contract

Assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are mechanically assembled
one after the other until the final product is achieved. This process requires less labour
and saves valuable time

Availability Evaluation of the time necessary to manufacture a product by a machine. It’s thus
possible to deduce its profitability

Bill of materials It’s a comprehensive list of raw materials, components and tools needed to
manufacture an item

Cell A workshop where all the processes required to manufacture a component or a sub-
assembly are carried-out in close proximity, often in a U-shaped layout, enabling rapid
turnaround between processes when problems arise

Coordinate These are devices that enable you to find the coordinates of measured marks on a
measuring machine mechanical part

Cycle-time Refers to the time it takes to repeat a task, from the beginning of processing one
product on a machine or operation to the starting point of processing another similar
product on the same equipment or procedure

Downtime Corresponds to production disruptions that penalise the productivity of a factory, to be

distinguished from breakdown

Finished goods A product which, after being manufactured, is ready for distribution

Human machine A control panel that helps a user to connect to a machine, computer program or system
interface to input data for manufacturing

Make to assemble Entire components premade in the factory for a standardised design and a rapid
assembly
 Word Definition

Make to stock It refers to assembling to order. It requires reactivity on the assembly work and
anticipation on the component stocks

Open platform A set of norms that cover industrial automation. A real-time transmission of plant data
communication between various manufacturers’ control devices

Operational This is the software used by the workers in the workplace, which enables them to
technology monitor and modify the machines' operating functions

Performance Optimise the operational productivity of a machine by working out a way to meet the
ideal cycle time

Quality An operation to determine, by appropriate means, whether or not the product,

including services, documents, source code, are audited conforms to its pre-established
specifications or requirement

Time study Identify the time required for the manufacturing stages and for the entire production
cycle

Tool A manufactured object used to act on the matter in order to achieve a task.

Tooling A set of tools for the functioning of a factory, a business

Utilisation It’s the ratio between the production capacity actually mobilised for production, and
the total production capacity potential available at a given date