Artisanal, Industrial, and Automated Systems
At the open-air market (the tianguis) in your neighborhood, you buy tortillas made by hand on a comal. At the store, tortillas come in a bag and were made by a machine that almost no one touches. Both are tortillas, but they are made in very different ways. What changes from one to the other? What does the person do in each case? By the end of this page you will be able to explain it clearly.
What Is a Technical System?
A technique is an organized way of doing something to meet a need. A technical system brings together everything needed to achieve it. All systems, simple or complex, have the same elements:
Depending on who controls the process and with what means, systems are grouped into three types: artisanal, industrial, and automated.
Classify each system as artisanal, industrial or automated, and explain the role of the person in each one: a backstrap loom in a Zapotec community in Oaxaca; an…
Classify each system as artisanal, industrial or automated, and explain the role of the person in each one: a backstrap loom in a Zapotec community in Oaxaca; an assembly line at a car plant in Guanajuato; a greenhouse whose watering turns on by itself when a sensor detects dry soil.
The Three Types of Systems
| Artisanal | Industrial | Automated | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who controls | The person, step by step | Machines and operators, each in their own part | The control system; the person supervises |
| Means | Hand tools | Machines | Sensors, controllers, robots |
| Know-how | Traditional, passed down from generation to generation | Technical and procedural | Technical and programming |
| Product | Unique piece | Uniform series | Uniform and highly precise series |
| Quantity | Small | Large | Enormous, almost nonstop |
The role of the person keeps changing: in artisanal work they make and decide; in industrial work they do one part of the job; in automated work they monitor and correct.
Order these three systems by the role of people, from the most direct control of the process to the least: a robotic arm that welds car bodies with no direct…
Order these three systems by the role of people, from the most direct control of the process to the least: a robotic arm that welds car bodies with no direct intervention; a polished clay pottery workshop; a line assembly where each operator fits a single part. Explain what «supervising» means in the system with the least direct control.
What the Person Does in Each System
Imagine a line with three levels of the person's direct control over the process:
-
Greatest control: burnished clay pottery. The potter decides the shape, the polishing, and the firing.
-
Partial control: the assembly line. The operator controls only their own task, not the whole product.
-
Least direct control: the robotic arm that welds. The person no longer welds.
In the automated system, supervising means making sure the process runs properly, checking the sensor data, programming or adjusting the machine, performing maintenance, and acting if there is a failure or an emergency stop. It is not "doing nothing": it is a different kind of work, one that requires more technical knowledge.
Employment changes too. Automation can eliminate repetitive and heavy tasks, but it creates maintenance and programming jobs. Someone who doesn't get trained can end up without work, which is why learning matters.
Comparing Production
To compare systems with numbers we use the production rate: how much is produced in one hour.
$$\text{rate} = \dfrac{\text{quantity produced}}{\text{time}} \qquad\Rightarrow\qquad \text{time} = \dfrac{\text{quantity}}{\text{rate}}$$But faster doesn't mean better in every way. Production by hand gives work to several families in the community and preserves traditional know-how and flavors. Automated production lowers the cost per kilogram, but it employs few people and can leave the neighborhood's tortilla makers without income. What matters is to compare with good judgment: quantity, employment, quality, cost, and culture.
The diagram compares three systems that produce tortillas. Calculate how many hours each one needs to produce 300 kg and write down the results. Then describe how the…
The diagram compares three systems that produce tortillas. Calculate how many hours each one needs to produce 300 kg and write down the results. Then describe how the role of people changes from one system to another and what effect that change has on the community's economy.
From Scientific Knowledge to a Technical Product
Technical systems are not isolated: they rely on science. Scientific knowledge explains how nature works; technology puts it to use to make a product that meets a need.
Think about the pressure cooker. The knowledge: the higher the pressure, the higher the temperature at which water boils. In an ordinary pot, water boils at about 100 °C. In a closed pot the steam can't escape, the pressure rises, the water reaches more than 100 °C, and the food cooks sooner. The product: a pot with a lid that seals tightly and a safety valve.
The relationship goes both ways. Science gives ideas to technology, and technology also helps science (instruments make it possible to measure and discover). In addition, traditional knowledge contributes centuries of understanding: nixtamalization, for example, was already improving corn long before its chemistry was explained.
Every technical system is linked to five areas: science, society, culture, economy, and nature. Systems transform how people live, work, and earn money in a community, and they leave a mark on the environment. Analyzing those links helps us decide better which technique to use.
The pressure cooker relies on a piece of scientific knowledge: at higher pressure, water boils at a higher temperature and food cooks faster. Explain with this example…
The pressure cooker relies on a piece of scientific knowledge: at higher pressure, water boils at a higher temperature and food cooks faster. Explain with this example how scientific knowledge turns into a technical product, and name another everyday product that also comes from a piece of scientific knowledge, stating which one it is.
Back to the beginning: the tortillas from the comal and the ones in the bag differ in who controls the process, what means they use, and how much they produce. At the comal, the person makes and decides; at the plant, machines produce in series and the person supervises.