Definition of Manufacturing 
Manufacturing is defined as a series of interrelated activities and operations involving the design, materials selection, planning, manufacturing production, quality assurance, management, and marketing of the products of the manufacturing industries.
 
Manufacturing is a combination of two Latin words: 'Manus' which means 'Hand', and 'Facio' which means 'To do'.
 
Goals of Manufacturing
The goals of Manufacturing include:
     --  Faster: Process should be fast
     --  Cheaper: It should be cost-effective
     --  Better: It should have good quality
     --  Diverse: Output should be diverse
 
This goals in some cases may be conflicting. A manufacturing company might forego one or more of these goals in other to achieve another of them.
 
Eras of Manufacturing
In manufacturing, we have the Pre-Industrial Revolution and the Industrial Revolution eras.
 
Examples of inventions in the Pre-Industrial era include the Iron Pillar in Delhi, the Arsenal in Venice, and the 32-Pounds Cannon of Great Britain.

 
Examples of inventions in the Industrial era include the Arkwright's Water-Frame, the Bessemer Convertor, the Bonsack Cigarette-Rolling Machine, and the  Solvay Process Plant.
 
Manufacturing Processes
The four processes of manufacturing are Job Shop, Batch Process, Assembly Line, and Continous Process.
 
Properties of manufacturing processes and their different types of examples:
-- Job Shops: Properties include Low Volume of production and High Variety of products. E.g. Aerospace.
-- Batch Process: Properties include Low Volume of production and produces Many products. E.g. Apparels.
-- Assembly Line: This process has High Volume of production but produces Few Major products. E.g. Automobiles.
-- Continuous Process: This has High Volume of production and manufactures Commodity products. E.g. Chemicals.
 
Eras of Production
The Era of Mass Production:
Popularized by Ford in 1908, this era was quite significant and effective, allowing engineers to be proficient at the design of machine tools and boosting the volume of production drastically. Mass Production was the foremost manufacturing technology of the 20th century.
 
The Era of Mass Customization
This era is known for its Flexible Mass Production or High Volume Customization techniques. GM re-engineered the assembly line and the machine tools allowing them to be able to create varieties of cars and still meet the high volume production goal of the Mass Production era.