How the Automotive Industry Has Changed Over the Years

The automotive industry is a relatively young one. It took some time to get from the first steam-powered cars to what we would recognise as a car today. In that time, there have been several significant advances in manufacturing technology. Below are four of the most significant changes to impact the industry since its inception.

Mass Production

The advent of mass production was a significant moment in the evolution of 20th-century manufacturing. Mass production wasn’t achievable until several related technologies came to fruition. Mass production required precision engineering, standardisation, interchangeability, and continuity.

None of this would have been possible without the advances of the industrial revolution. But mass production exploded across the western world during the early 20th century. Mass production transformed numerous industries, including the automotive industry. However, it arrived just in time for the First World War. Mass production is a big part of why that war was so brutal.

Spare Parts and Components

With car manufacturers producing standardised components at scale, garages and vehicle repair businesses were able to order spare parts and use them to repair customers’ vehicles. Over time, various innovations would make it possible for the average car owner to carry out a broad range of repairs on their own cars.

Today, car owners are free to repair or modify their vehicles. In fact, it is easy to do so thanks to the easy availability of new parts and components. Anyone can order new car parts online and fit them. For example, a turbocharger is a component that increases the efficiency of a car engine by forcing more air into the cylinders, enabling them to burn fuel at a faster rate.

Anyone wanting to add a turbocharge to their car can order the KKK Turbocharger from a website like partstock.eu. The KKK Turbocharger 53279887110 is one of the many parts and components available on the partstock.eu website. They also stock repair kits and spare parts for a range of vehicles.

Automation

Automation has been one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. When most people think of cars and automation today, they think of driverless vehicles. However, automation has been impacting the vehicle manufacturing industry for decades now.

Before automation, human workers painstakingly produced every single component and put them together themselves. The advent of automation enabled manufacturers to build components at volume. Subsequent advances in automation technology meant that parts could be made and then fitted together with minimal intervention from humans.

But while automation has made it easier and cheaper to produce vehicles, it has decimated factory jobs in many areas. As the capabilities of automotive technologies have continued to advance, car production lines have required fewer and fewer people,

Computers

The idea of computers in our cars seemed like science fiction not too long ago. But vehicles with built-in computers are now relatively common and becoming increasingly widespread. Manufacturing advanced electronics is a very different game from manufacturing car parts. Car manufacturers have had to adapt their assembly lines as a result.

The vehicle manufacturing industry is continually evolving. It is unlikely that cars in 50-years will look like cars today. Who knows how technology will shape car manufacturing over the remainder of the century?

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