We explain what the industry is, its history, importance, classification and other characteristics. Also, examples of industries.
What is the industry?
Industry is the set of human activities capable of transforming raw material into manufactured or semi-finished products, through the performance of work using tools or machinery, human Resources, and the consumption of Energy.
The industry forms a fundamental link for the society contemporary, at the same time as one of the main factors of risk environmental and ecological. Its sustained impact since the times of the Industrial Revolution it begins to be unconcealed at the beginning of the 21st century.
Industries are considered, practically, all production tasks from raw material, even those associated with handicrafts. However, in the modern idea of industry automation and mass production (the so-called Fordism) are usually fundamental elements.
The ability to produce more and faster is the guiding spirit of contemporary industry, which goes hand in hand with the technology and engineering, even when it means replacing human workers by machines.
Industries in society usually occupy the Secondary sector, which receives the raw material and transforms it into marketable products. However, they can also belong to the Primary sector, as is the case of the extractive industries.
Industry history
Industry, in some way, 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. However, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Industrial Revolution took place, that is, the highest level in history in human capacities to transform raw materials.
This explosion of the industry had begun to build after the fall of the feudalism medieval, when the population migrated from rural areas to cities, to integrate a new workforce that was beginning to become necessary: the working class. Also with the Industrial Revolution the capitalism What Mode of production.
During the 19th century and the middle of the 20th, the exploitation industrial work force The labor force was the greatest contribution to the GDP of the European nations, also allowing the emergence of specialization and new technologies, hand in hand with the new scientific advances of the century.
The new industrial society divided the countries of the world into industrialized or developed, those that made the leap towards productive and independent economies, and underdeveloped or non-industrialized countries, which are those dependent on foreign economies and dedicated to the sale of raw materials.
Industry types
There are different types of industry, depending on the specific sector to which its production is dedicated. Some of the best known types are:
- Heavy industries. Using large amounts of raw materials and energy, they are generally engaged in the steel industry and other activities that generate semi-processed materials, inputs in turn for basic industries.
- Steel or metallurgical industries. They are dedicated to the transformation and alloy of the metals, to achieve useful shapes for other industries or for the consumer direct.
- Chemical industries. Dedicated to obtaining chemical elements Y compounds, to be used by other industries or directly by the consumers.
- Petrochemical industry. As its name implies, it is dedicated to the chemical transformation of Petroleum, that is, to its refinement to obtain various derivatives, such as gasoline, kerosene or plastic.
- Automovile industry. Dedicated to the construction of automobiles.
- Food industry. The one whose main market is that of food of diverse nature, be it foods, drinks or ingredients for the kitchen.
- Textile industry. Dedicated to the production of fabrics and fabrics for the manufacture of clothes and other products.
- Pharmaceutical industry. It is dedicated to the combination of compounds organic and inorganic to obtain various types of medicines and health supplies.
- Arms industry. That which is dedicated to the production of military or police weapons.
- Industry computing. Dedicated to the production of parts of computers, whole computers, accessories, peripherals, etc.
- Mechanical industry. Those whose products are machines, spare parts for machines or tools for repair.
- Fur industry. It is dedicated to the work of animal skins to produce footwear, clothing and other products of animal origin.
- Energetic industry. Its main and only task is to obtain Energy to feed the population and other industries, through mechanical, atomic or chemical processes.
Industry importance
The industry introduced great changes in the model of human life, to the point that they forever changed our paradigms vital. The consumer society we live in today is mainly sustained by the exploitation of natural resources of the Earth.
In addition, our planet is transformed by the industrial sector, or to obtain energy, in an effort to satisfy an ever greater and more constant energy demand. The fate of the industry, seen in this way, is intimately linked to the ecological fate of the planet and the fate of our own. species.
Industry examples
Some simple industry examples are:
- Telephone industry. Dedicated to the commercialization of telephone terminals and supplies necessary for their operation, not to the commercialization of the telephone service. Samsung, Nokia, are examples of companies in this area.
- Automotive industry. Dedicated to the production of automobiles and in some cases motorcycles and similar vehicles with internal combustion engines. Honda, Ford, Mercedes Benz, are examples of Business of the item.
- Oil industry. Dedicated to the extraction of oil and its commercialization, hand in hand or not with the petrochemical industry to refine it. PDVSA, British Petrol, Shell, Texaco, are examples of companies in the field.
Manufacture
Manufacturing is called fabrication process, that is, to the economic production of consumer goods, encompassing a wide range of human activities, ranging from handicrafts to mass industry, and transforming raw materials into products elaborated or semi-finished.
That is to say, it is a term more or less synonymous with industry, in the cases in which it is secondary sector industries. Thus, we can speak of manufacturing industries, to differentiate them from industries dedicated to the extraction of raw materials, such as the mining industry.