ABSTRACT
Where manufacturing processes have become mechanical the primary producers are power-driven machines. The tasks of those who operate them are to serve machines—by loading, unloading, correcting faults, making adjustments, and carrying out routine maintenance and periodic overhauls. The products of a machine technology are standardized. Variations in them are largely determined by mechanical tolerances. The tasks and the products of a mechanized industry may be contrasted with those of craft industries, in which the producers are men and women and the products are unstandardized. Variations are determined by individual skill and idiosyncrasy.
