Theme 3.3: Industry – Study Notes
Welcome to the world of Industry! This chapter is all about how things are made, from the raw materials dug out of the ground to the latest smartphone in your hand. Understanding industry is key to understanding Economic Development, as manufacturing and hi-tech services create wealth and jobs. Don't worry, we'll break down the factory floor into simple, easy-to-digest steps!
Quick Tip: Think of this chapter as solving a mystery: Why is this factory built *here* and not somewhere else?
1. The Industrial System: Inputs, Processes, and Outputs
To understand how a factory works, we can model it as a system. An industrial system takes things in, does work on them, and produces something new.
Analogy: Baking a Cake
Imagine a factory is baking a cake. You need ingredients, equipment, and steps to follow. That's the industrial system!
1. Inputs (The Ingredients)
These are the resources that go into making the product:
- Raw Materials: Unprocessed items (e.g., iron ore, cotton, crude oil).
- Components: Parts already manufactured by other companies (e.g., car doors, computer chips).
- Labour: Workers, their skills, and their time.
- Capital: Money used for investment, machinery, and buildings.
- Land/Site: The area where the factory is built.
- Power/Fuel: Energy needed to run the machines (e.g., electricity, gas).
2. Processes (The Cooking)
These are the activities that convert the inputs into outputs:
- Manufacturing: Creating something new (e.g., stamping metal sheets).
- Assembly: Putting components together (e.g., attaching the car doors).
- Refining/Processing: Changing the physical or chemical state of a material (e.g., turning crude oil into petrol).
3. Outputs (The Finished Cake)
These are the results that come out of the system:
- Products: The finished goods sold to consumers (e.g., a new car, a box of textiles).
- Waste: Materials that are thrown away or recycled (e.g., scrap metal, polluted water, fumes).
2. Classifying Industries: What Kind of Work is Being Done?
Industries are often grouped by the type of work they perform. In Topic 3.1, you learned about Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary sectors. Industry primarily falls under the Secondary sector, but we can look closer at the types of secondary activities:
Types of Secondary Industry
Manufacturing Industry:
This is the most common type. It takes raw materials and makes them into goods, often on a large scale.
- Example: Textile factories turning cotton into clothes, or making plastic goods.
Processing Industry:
Involves purifying, refining, or treating raw materials to make them usable. The raw material usually goes through a significant chemical or physical change.
- Example: Oil refineries, cement works, or steel mills.
Assembly Industry:
Focuses on putting together complex components manufactured elsewhere. It requires less heavy machinery but often demands precision and speed.
- Example: Electronics manufacturing (putting together circuit boards), or vehicle assembly plants (assembling parts made by dozens of different companies).
High Technology (Hi-Tech) Industry:
This is the newest type. It relies heavily on advanced research, highly skilled labour, and technology. These industries produce lightweight, high-value goods.
- Example: Developing software, making microchips, biotechnology, and aerospace design.
3. Factors Influencing Industrial Location (The 'Why Here?')
Why do companies choose one location over another? The decision is complex and involves balancing costs, access, and availability. These are called Locational Factors.
A. Physical Factors (Natural Resources and Site)
1. Raw Materials:
Factories that use heavy or bulky materials that lose a lot of weight during processing usually locate close to the source of the raw material to save on transport costs.
- Concept Check: If you cut down a tree to make paper, the logs are heavy, but the finished paper is light. You build the mill near the forest. This is a Weight-Losing Industry.
- If the product gains weight or bulk (e.g., bottling soft drinks, where water is added), you locate near the market.
2. Land:
The amount and cost of land matters. Modern, large factories (especially assembly and Hi-Tech) need large, flat sites, often found on the rural-urban fringe (the edge of a city) where land is cheaper and there is good access to highways.
3. Fuel and Power:
Historically, proximity to coal fields (fuel) was essential (think Industrial Revolution). Today, most HICs and many MICs have a national electricity grid, so power can be sourced anywhere. However, industries that use vast amounts of power (e.g., aluminium smelting) still need to be near cheap energy sources like hydroelectric power (HEP).
B. Human and Economic Factors
4. Labour:
A factory needs people! The type of labour needed dictates location:
- Unskilled/Cheap Labour: Needed for mass production and simple assembly (often found in Developing Countries/LEDCs).
- Skilled Labour (Scientists, Engineers): Needed for Hi-Tech and specialized manufacturing (often located near universities or research centres in Developed Countries/MEDCs).
5. Transport:
How inputs get in and outputs get out is vital. Location near transport networks reduces costs and delivery time.
- Bulk Goods: Need ports (for ships) or railways.
- High-Value Goods (Hi-Tech): Need good access to airports and fast motorways.
- Did you know? The development of container shipping has made it much cheaper to transport goods globally, meaning many factories are now located further from their final market.
6. Markets (Customers):
Factories that produce fragile, perishable (spoiling quickly), or bulky products (which are expensive to ship) usually locate close to their customers (the market).
- Example: Bakeries, breweries, and car repair shops are market-oriented because their product is either heavy, fragile, or needs to be fresh.
7. Political Factors and Government Influence:
Governments play a big role in location decisions, especially in less developed regions where they want to create jobs.
- Grants and Subsidies: Financial help offered by the government to encourage companies to locate in specific areas (often areas with high unemployment).
- Planning Permissions: Regulations that dictate where factories can and cannot be built.
- Industrial Zones (or Parks): Areas specifically set aside and prepared by the government for industrial use, making it easier for companies to set up quickly.
4. Industrial Zones and Locational vs. Siting Factors
When studying a case study of a factory or zone, you must look at two levels of decision-making:
1. Locational Factors (The General Area)
This answers the question: "Which region or city should we build in?" This decision depends on the broad factors we just discussed (Raw materials, Markets, skilled Labour pool).
- Example: Building a car factory in the country of Slovakia because labour costs are low and it is close to major European markets.
2. Siting Factors (The Specific Plot of Land)
This answers the question: "Exactly where on the map should the factory plot be?" These are very specific physical characteristics of the land itself.
- Site Factors include:
- Flat, stable ground.
- Good access to a major road junction (motorway/highway).
- Availability of basic utilities (water, sewage, electricity lines).
- Low land cost.
Industrial Zones and Parks
A modern solution to factory location is the Industrial Zone or Industrial Park. These are large areas, usually developed by a local authority or government, where land is cheap, flat, and all the necessary infrastructure is already installed.
Benefits of Industrial Zones:
- Pre-planned Infrastructure: Good roads, reliable power, and water connections are ready.
- Agglomeration (Synergy): Factories benefit from being close to related businesses (e.g., car parts manufacturers locating near the main car assembly plant).
- Easier Planning: Permits and legal aspects are often simplified by the government to attract investment.
Hi-Tech industries are often footloose (they don't need to be tied to heavy raw materials or cheap power). They focus on:
- Access to skilled research labour (universities).
- Excellent transport links (airports, motorways).
- Attractive environment (for workers).
- Government incentives (tax breaks).
5. Case Study Focus: An Industrial Zone or Factory
For your case study (Topic 3.3), you must be able to illustrate the locational and siting factors of a real-world industrial zone or factory.
To study your case study effectively, ask these questions:
- What is made here? (Identify the inputs, processes, and outputs.)
- Why this general location? (Which locational factors were most important: Market? Labour? Raw materials?)
- Why this specific site? (Is the land flat? Is it near a motorway? What is the cost of land?)
- What are the benefits/disadvantages? (Think jobs created, but also pollution or traffic congestion.)
Encouragement: You've covered the complex factors that drive industrial decisions worldwide. Good job! By remembering the difference between inputs/outputs and the main locational factors, you can confidently explain why factories end up where they do.