Uploaded on 2020-05-15 by BOGGU SIREESHA

IN THE EUROPE OF THE MIDDLE AGES, craftsmen with varying levels of skill manufactured carts one at a time. Even the best of these carts provided little more than basic transportation. Yet in the same cities of Europe, at the same time, master masons and builders created incredible stone cathedrals, using principles of design and construction that were breathtaking for the time. Today the technologies of both manufacturing and construction have changed, but not nearly to the same degree. Part of the reason for the different degrees of change can be found in the basic differences between manufacturing and construction. Construction is essentially the process of moving and assembling materials and equipment into a completed, operational facility. Although many construction operations are repetitive, they are performed neither in a fixed sequence nor at a fixed location. Also, since construction, unlike manufacturing, rarely involves production of a standardized product, the demands on the material supply functions of buying, expediting, receiving, warehousing, and delivery are much more complex. For many of these reasons, the basic construction process of building stick by stick, piece by piece, has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. But that basic process is critical to the world’s economy.