# Evolution of Industrial Paradigms - The big picture takes us back to the Middle Ages - Back then, the paradigm for making goods was the craftsmanship model, where you had small entrepreneurs and craftsman masters and their apprentices producing goods one at a time, highly customized to their customers - This allowed for a lot of product variety, but it was also slow and expensive - The chart below on industrial paradigms has on the X axis the production volume, how many units you make per unit of time, like per year. And on the Y-axis variety, the higher you are on the variety axis, the more different each product will be (note the axis decreases as Y-coordinates increase). ![[Pasted image 20240702213552.png]] - Starting with craft manufacturing in the Middle Ages, we gradually transition to a more industrial perspective. - The American system of manufacturing in the 19th century was focused on producing, for example, firearms in the armories using standard processes and standard parts in the thousands. The key idea was interchangeability between parts. - Mass production became important in the late 19th century, and especially in the early 20th century, with the Ford Model T being a key example of mass production. - The product was very, very similar. There were very small differences only between individual products. - After World War II, however, things changed. Customers became more demanding.