12: Observing Factories
A factory, or "manufactory," brings together the various processes for producing finished goods. There can be quite a complicated arrangement of materials and machines, each attending to the production of a component, then the assembly of components into the finished products.
In this chapter he provides a list of questions to consider when touring a factory in order to sort out its operations and understand the ways in which it functions and to identify key advantages and issues.
(EN: The list of questions seems entirely random and jumbled, so I'll try to categorize.)
General Questions
The products made at the operation
A brief sketch of its history
Materials
The sources of its materials
A list of its inputs
Whether each input is in a raw state or has been previously worked
Waste
What defects are common
What portion of material is wasted in proportion to used in products
How goods are inspected
What is done with waste and defective goods
Financial
The cost of inputs
The usual price of products
The capital investment in plant and equipment
Duties, taxes, and bounties on production
The profit made on each good
Operational
What machinery and tools are used
Whether tools are provided or brought by workers
The wear and tear on machinery
The number of processes to create a finished good
The number of laborers necessary to each process
Human Resources
The number of employees
The skills that are needed from labor
How much training is needed
How and how much workers are paid
The number of shift and working hours
Marketing
The quantity of goods made
The chief competitors and whether they are foreign or domestic
The chief consumers and whether they are foreign or domestic
Whether the good is sold to consumers or to other industries
Whether the factory sells direct, through brokers, or through middlemen
He suggests that by answering these basic questions, one can form a very detailed understanding of the operations of a factory - but it is a generic overview and there are likely more questions to be asked of a specific kind of operation.