Division of labour
Also called: Specialisation of labour · Topic: Secondary Activities: Manufacturing and Industrial Location · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 5 "Secondary Activities"
Meaning
Division of labour means splitting the making of a product into many small tasks. Each worker or unit does only one task again and again. Workers become fast and skilled at their single task, so more goods are made with less effort and at lower cost. Modern manufacturing uses extreme division of labour along with complex machines. This needs vast capital, large organisations and a team of managers to run it.
Example
In a knitwear factory in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, one group of workers cuts the cloth, another stitches, another adds labels and another packs. No single worker makes a whole garment.
Don't confuse with
- Assembly line: this is one way of putting division of labour into practice. The product physically moves past workers. Division of labour is the wider idea of splitting tasks, with or without a moving line.
Related concepts
- Craft method of production
- Mass production
- Assembly line
- Mechanisation
- Automation
- Uneven distribution of manufacturing