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- For other uses of this term, see Industry (disambiguation)
Industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent, industrious"), is the segment of economy concerned with the production of goods and services. Industry began in its present form during the 1800s, aided by technological advances, and it has continued to develop to this day. Many developed countries (The UK, The U.S. and Canada for example) and many developing/semi-developed countries (People's Republic of China, India etc.) depend significantly on industry. Industries, the countries they reside in, and the economies of those countries are interlinked in a complex web that may be hard to understand at first glance. Industry in the second sense became a key sector of production in European and North American countries during the Industrial Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many successive rapid advances in technology, such as the steel and coal production. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalist economic policy. Railroads and steam-powered ships began speedily establishing links with previously unreachable world markets, enabling private companies to develop to then-unheard of size and wealth. Manufacturing is a wealth producing sector in an economy. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries—more than agriculture's share. In economics and urban planning, industrial is a type of land use and economic activity involved with manufacturing and production.
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History
Proto-industry
Early industries involved manufacturing goods for trade, including weapons, clothing, pottery. In medieval Europe, industry became dominated by the guilds in cities and towns, who mutual support for the member's interests, and maintained standards of workmanship and ethical conduct.
Industrial development
The industrial revolution led to the development of factories for large-scale production, with consequent changes in society. Originally the factories were steam-powered, but later transitioned to electricity once an electrical grid was developed. The mechanized assembly line was introduced to assemble parts in a repeatable fashion, with individual workers performing specific steps during the process. This led to significant increases in efficiency, lowering the cost of the end process. Later automation was increasingly used to replace human operators. This process has accelerated with the development of the computer and the robot.
Declining industries
Historically certain manufacturing industries have gone into a decline due to various economic factors, including the development of replacement technology or the loss of competitive advantage. An example of the former is the decline in carriage manufacturing when the automobile was mass-produced. A recent trend has been the migration of prosperous, industrialized nations toward a post-industrial society. This is manifested by an increase in the service sector at the expense of manufacturing, and the development of an information-based economy, the so-called informational revolution. In a post-industrial society, manufacturing is relocated to more economically-favorable locations through a process of offshoring.
There are several different types of industry. Primary Secondary Tertiery
Industrial technology
There are several branches of technology and engineering specialised for industrial application. This includes mathematical models, patented inventions and craft skills. See automation, industrial architecture, industrial design, industrial process, industrial arts and industrial applicability.
Industry and society
An industrial society can be defined in many ways. Today, industry is an important part of most societies and nations. A government must have some kind of industrial policy, regulating industrial placement, industrial pollution, financing and industrial labor.
Industrial labor
In an industrial society, industry employs a major part of the population. The labor movement first rose among industrial workers. See also industrial sociology, industrial and organizational psychology, industrial district, industrial park.
Industry and war
The industrial revolution changed warfare, with mass-produced weaponry and supplies, machine-powered transportation, mobilization, the total war concept and weapons of mass destruction. Early instances of industrial warfare were the Crimean War and the American Civil War, but its full potential showed during the world wars. See also military-industrial complex, arms industry, military industry and modern warfare.
Industry and environment
See pollution and industrial ecology
Organization, management and economics
Economic views of industry
Philosophers and economists have developed many different views of industry. See physiocrats, Adam Smith, capitalism, Marxism and Colin Clark's Sector model.
Industry sectors and classification
There are many other different kinds of industries, and they are usually divided into different classes or sectors. The primary sector of industry is agriculture, mining and raw material extraction. The secondary sector of industry is manufacturing - which is what is colloquially meant by the word "industry". The tertiary sector of industry is service production. Sometimes one talks about a quaternary sector of industry, consisting of intellectual services.
- light industry - heavy industry
- labor-intensive industry - capital-intensive industry
- By product: chemical industry, petroleum industry, meatpacking industry, hospitality industry, food industry, fish industry, software industry, paper industry, entertainment industry, semiconductor industry, cultural industry, poverty industry
ISIC ISIC(rev.4) stands for International Standard Industrial Classification of ALL economic activities, the most complete and systematic industrial classification made by United Nations Statistics Division. ISIC Rev.4 is a standard classification of economic activities arranged so that entities can be classified according to the activity they carry out. The categories of ISIC at the most detailed level (classes) are delineated according to what is, in most countries, the customary combination of activities described in statistical units and considers the relative importance of the activities included in these classes. While ISIC Rev.4 continues to use criteria such as input, output and use of the products produced, more emphasis has been given to the character of the production process in defining and delineating ISIC classes. classification of industry Yahoo!Finance Industry Center by Yahoo!Finance is also very useful (shows Trends of all industrial sectors).
References
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