question: How did manufacturing and inspection accuracy get to where it is today?
comment: The main concept is the idea of subdivision. Generally it is much easier to mechanically divide some physical quantity into equal parts (using some kind of rotating or balancing device) than to measure it in an absolute sense. This can be used to make more precise measuring tools. Let's say you can measure an absolute length to 0.1", so if you create a 1" piece it will have a length of 1" +/- 0.1". Similarly, an 10" piece will have a length of 10" +/- 0.1". If you now accurately divide that 10" piece into 10 equal subdivisions, each will be 1" +/- 0.01" long. The machines used to do this are called [dividing engines]( URL_0 ) and they were the key to more accurate measurement.
passages: Micro Industries monitored and controlled its manufacturing process since it began manufacturing in 1978. All of its products were manufactured in the United States. General Motors certified it in 1984 for its SPEAR program, which allowed shipment of products to GM facilities for on-vehicle applications without incoming test and inspection. Micro Industries registered its quality program to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 standards in 1993, and registered in each subsequent year to meet the diverse elements of the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard. In 1989, Micro Industries developed a unique process to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements for a zero-discharge manufacturing facility, which became operational in 1991. These processes were later registered to ISO 14001 Environmental Management standards.
   Regular production of auto parts continued in the United States and innovation became a crucial component to any manufacturing company’s success. Fisher Body, which had long since expanded its products beyond solely creating auto bodies, shipped its first latches in 1946. Inland also began selling new products in 1951 when it shipped its first door trim panels and later instrument panels in 1956.
   In 1961, the Comptometer Corporation merged with the Victor Adding Machine Company, and the two became the Victor Comptometer Corporation. After barely surviving the microprocessor revolution, it is still doing business today as Victor Technology LLC.
  
  Section::::Development.
  
  Section::::Development.:Wooden boxes.
  
  The first machines were built using wooden boxes, which made them lighter but more fragile. They were called the "woodies", and about machines were built in between 1887 and 1903.
   The test machine consists of a standardized bearing race mounted on a tapered arbor rotating at high speed. The race is brought into contact with a square steel test block under a constant load. The contact area is flooded with the lubricant or grease being tested. The Timken OK Load is the highest standard load at which the spinning bearing race produces no scouring mark on the test block, but only a uniform wear scar.
   Section::::Items certified in 2017.:Site.
   He noted the cost driver that was nationally pervasive on production lines was the inspection of assemblies after soldering and the subsequent reworking of joints with irregular shapes simply because there were no tools available to assess the risk to reliability after delivery. He decided variations in wetting and spreading were root causes of irregular shapes and invested in radically new research at the Rockwell International Science Center, the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, and the National Institutes of Science and Technology.
   After Sigma musical instruments were built in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and finally Indonesia, they were sent to Martin & Co. in Nazareth, Pennsylvania to be inspected and adjusted by Martin personnel before going to an authorized retail dealer for sale to the public. These inspections and adjustments were made in the "old" Martin building on North St. (1859,) then known as the Import house.
   It is almost exactly ten years since "The Engineering Magazine" laid down the first clear definitions of that system of manufacturing which has come to be known as distinctively American. During the entire intervening period, these pages have been the repository of the leading literature of the subject — of the classics in the science of engineering as applied to mechanical production. We have numbered among our contributors most of the great specialists in the practice of "Production Engineering" — the modern profession based upon this highly modern literature — and the fundamental principles of systematized specialized, standardized, and repetitive manufacture have been set forth more fully and lucidly here than anywhere else.
   Section::::California Years (1946-1961).
   In 1946, Joseph B. Johnson, a longtime Bryant employee (and later a Governor of Vermont), became Vice President and General Manager.
  
  Lend-Lease during World War II was in some respects the peak of export activity, but export would remain central ever after.
  
  Section::::1950s and 1960s.
   The American system involved semi-skilled labor using machine tools and jigs to make standardized, identical, interchangeable parts, manufactured to a tolerance, which could be assembled with a minimum of time and skill, requiring little to no fitting.
   A critical factor in making interchangeable metal parts was the invention of several machine tools, such as the slide rest lathe, screw cutting lathe, turret lathe, milling machine and metal planer. One of the most important and versatile of these machine tools was David Wilkinson's lathe, for which he received a $10,000 award from the government of the United States.
   Section::::Models.:Pianet C & CH.
  
  Approximate manufacturing span 1963–1966
   Van Norman's line of grinding machines became very important in the bearing industry. Oscillating grinders were sold to many of the world's leading manufacturers of ball and roller bearings. Van Norman sold its precision external centerless grinder line to Bryant in 1972.
  
  Section::::Spindle tooling.
   Section::::Site preparation.:Mechanical.
  
  Up to 1970, no "sophisticated" site preparation equipment had become operational in Ontario, but the need for more efficacious and versatile equipment was increasingly recognized. By this time, improvements were being made to equipment originally developed by field staff, and field testing of equipment from other sources was increasing.
   Section::::Models.:Pianet M.
  
  Approximate manufacturing span 1977–1982
   The simplest form of quality control was a sketch of the desired item. If the sketch did not match the item, it was rejected, in a simple Go/no go procedure. However, manufacturers soon found it was difficult and costly to make parts be exactly like their depiction; hence around 1840 tolerance limits were introduced, wherein a design would function if its parts were measured to be within the limits. Quality was thus precisely defined using devices such as plug gauges and ring gauges. However, this did not address the problem of defective items; recycling or disposing of the waste adds to the cost of production, as does trying to reduce the defect rate. Various methods have been proposed to prioritize quality control issues and determine whether to leave them unaddressed or use quality assurance techniques to improve and stabilize production.
   In order to achieve strict tolerances, watch manufacturers largely manufactured their own machine tools and machine parts. Elgin, for example, manufactured almost two drill bits for each watch it manufactured. The knowledge of how to manufacture machines that could manufacture watches spread: from Waltham to Elgin and then to dozens of other American watch companies and manufacturers of other products. Techniques such as jigs, stops, and measuring devices on machines were not just refined, but other techniques were also developed.
   Interchangeability of parts was finally achieved by combining a number of innovations and improvements in machining operations and machine tools, which were developed primarily for making textile machinery. These innovations included the invention of new machine tools and jigs (in both cases, for guiding the cutting tool), fixtures for holding the work in the proper position, and blocks and gauges to check the accuracy of the finished parts.
  
  Section::::Use of machinery.
   2. Advanced statistical methods of quality control: These factories were pioneered by the American electrical engineer William Edwards Deming, who was initially ignored by his home country. The same methods of quality control later turned Japanese factories into world leaders in cost-effectiveness and production quality.
  
  3. Industrial robots on the factory floor, introduced in the late 1970s: These computer-controlled welding arms and grippers could perform simple tasks such as attaching a car door quickly and flawlessly 24 hours a day. This cut costs and improved production speed.
  
  Section::::History.
   BULLET::::- No. 67: Double Housing Plaining Machine: Made by Akabane Engineering Works, Ministry of Industry. Double Housing Plaining Machine, 6 foot type machine, with three emblem Chrysanthemum Flower Seal, made by Akabane Engineering Works of Ministry of Industry in 1879. Ministry of Industry produced Japan made various machine tool for industrial innovation aiming to modernization. – Aichi Prefecture
  
  BULLET::::- No. 68: Fuji Automatic Massage Machine, mass production type invented by Fuji () in 1954. – Osaka Prefecture
  
  Section::::Items certified in 2014.:Documents.
   The Cold War resulted in increased spending on the development of defense technology in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of the safety-critical nature of such technology, particularly weapons systems, the government and defense firms came to employ hundreds of thousands of people in inspection and monitoring of highly-complex products assembled from hundreds of thousands of individual parts. This activity routinely uncovered defects in design, manufacture, and assembly and resulted in an expensive, drawn out cycle of inspection, rework, reinspection, and retest. Additionally, reports of spectacular missile failures appearing in the press heightened the pressure to eliminate defects.
   In 1890 the first Van Norman Milling Machine was built, and in 1914 the first of Van Norman's oscillating grinding machines was introduced. Oscillating grinders were sold to many of the world's leading manufacturers of ball and roller bearings.
  
  Section::::Ram type mills.
   In 2006, a Rodgers Allegiant 657 was installed in the family chapel of the White Family on ABC Television's .
  
  Previously, "John Ratzenberger's Made in America" Travel Channel show featured at segment on Rodgers filmed at Rodgers’ Hillsboro, Oregon plant. That episode still appears from time to time on the Travel Channel.
  
  Rodgers factory is also featured in Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg’s popular “Watch it Made in the U.S.A.” books profiling interesting factory tours of American manufacturing facilities.
   The concept of a quality as we think of it now first emerged from the Industrial Revolution. Previously goods had been made from start to finish by the same person or team of people, with handcrafting and tweaking the product to meet 'quality criteria'. Mass production brought huge teams of people together to work on specific stages of production where one person would not necessarily complete a product from start to finish. In the late 19th century pioneers such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford recognized the limitations of the methods being used in mass production at the time and the subsequent varying quality of output. Birland established Quality Departments to oversee the quality of production and rectifying of errors, and Ford emphasized standardization of design and component standards to ensure a standard product was produced. Management of quality was the responsibility of the Quality department and was implemented by Inspection of product output to 'catch' defects.
  