Secondary Activities
1. Learning Objectives
After reading these notes, you will be able to:
2. Secondary Activities and Manufacturing
3. Characteristics of Modern Large Scale Manufacturing
🎯 Specialisation of Skills
‘Craft’ method makes few made-to-order pieces at high cost. Mass production involves large quantities of standardised parts, each worker performing one task repeatedly.
🤖 Mechanisation
Using gadgets to accomplish tasks. Automation (without human thinking) is the advanced stage — automatic factories with feedback/closed-loop computer control now exist worldwide.
🔬 Technological Innovation
Research and development (R&D) for quality control, eliminating waste/inefficiency, and combating pollution.
🏢 Organisational Structure
Complex machine technology, extreme specialisation and division of labour, requiring vast capital, large organisations and executive bureaucracy.
4. Factors Influencing Industrial Location
- Access to Market: Existence of people with demand + purchasing power. Developed regions (Europe, North America, Japan, Australia) offer large markets; some industries (aircraft, arms) have global markets.
- Access to Raw Material: Cheap, easy-to-transport materials preferred. Industries using bulky, weight-losing material (steel, sugar, cement) locate near the source; perishable materials (agro-processing, dairy) also locate close to source.
- Access to Labour Supply: Some manufacturing needs skilled labour, though mechanisation/automation has reduced dependence on labour.
- Access to Sources of Energy: Power-intensive industries (e.g., aluminium) locate near energy sources — earlier coal, now also hydroelectricity and petroleum.
- Transportation & Communication: Essential for carrying raw materials in and finished goods out. Western Europe and eastern North America have highly developed transport systems inducing industrial concentration.
- Government Policy: Regional policies promote ‘balanced’ economic development, setting up industries in particular areas.
- Agglomeration Economies: Benefits from nearness to a leader-industry and linked industries — savings derived from linkages between industries.
5. Classification of Manufacturing Industries
📏 (A) Based on Size
🏠 Household / Cottage
Smallest unit; artisans use local raw material and simple tools at home with family/part-time labour; low commercial significance; products: foodstuffs, mats, pottery, jewellery, bamboo crafts.
🏬 Small Scale
Made in a workshop outside home; uses local raw material, simple power-driven machines, semi-skilled labour. Raises local purchasing power — important in India, China, Indonesia, Brazil.
🏗️ Large Scale
Large market, various raw materials, enormous energy, specialised workers, advanced technology, assembly-line mass production, large capital. Developed in last 200 years in UK, NE USA, Europe — now diffused worldwide.
🌾 (B) Based on Inputs/Raw Materials
| Type | Details |
|---|---|
| Agro-based | Processing farm/field raw materials — food processing, sugar, pickles, fruit juices, beverages (tea, coffee, cocoa), textiles (cotton, jute, silk), rubber. |
| Mineral-based | Ferrous (iron/steel), Non-ferrous metallic (aluminium, copper, jewellery), Non-metallic (cement, pottery). |
| Chemical-based | Petro-chemical (mineral oil), salts/sulphur/potash industries, plus wood/coal-based chemicals, synthetic fibre, plastic. |
| Forest-based | Timber (furniture), wood/bamboo/grass (paper), lac (lac industries). |
| Animal-based | Leather (leather industry), wool (woollen textiles), ivory (elephant tusks). |
📦 (C) Based on Output/Product
- Basic Industries: Products used as raw material to make other goods, e.g., iron/steel → machines → textile industry → clothes.
- Consumer Goods (Non-basic) Industries: Goods consumed directly by consumers — bread, biscuits, tea, soaps, toiletries, paper, televisions.
🏛️ (D) Based on Ownership
🏛️ Public Sector
Owned and managed by governments. India had many Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs); socialist countries have many state-owned industries; mixed economies have both public and private enterprises.
🏢 Private Sector
Owned by individual investors, managed by private organisations; generally the norm in capitalist countries.
🤝 Joint Sector
Managed by joint stock companies, or sometimes private and public sectors together establish and manage the industries.
6. High Technology Industry
- White-collar (professional) workers make up a large share of the workforce, greatly outnumbering blue-collar production workers.
- Examples: Robotics on assembly lines, Computer-Aided Design (CAD)/manufacturing, electronic controls of smelting/refining, constant new chemical/pharmaceutical development.
- Landscape: Neatly spaced, low, modern, dispersed office-plant-lab buildings rather than massive assembly structures; planned business parks for high-tech start-ups.
Summary — Quick Revision
Secondary Activities: Add value by transforming raw materials into finished products — manufacturing, processing, construction.
Modern Manufacturing: Specialisation of skills, mechanisation/automation, technological innovation, complex organisation, uneven geographic distribution.
Location Factors: Market, raw material, labour, energy, transport/communication, government policy, agglomeration economies. Footloose industries need only road accessibility.
By Size: Household/cottage (smallest) → Small scale (workshop, semi-skilled) → Large scale (mass production, capital intensive).
By Inputs: Agro-based, Mineral-based (ferrous/non-ferrous/non-metallic), Chemical-based, Forest-based, Animal-based.
By Output: Basic industries (raw material for other goods) vs Consumer goods industries (direct consumption).
By Ownership: Public sector (govt-owned), Private sector (individual investors), Joint sector (public + private).
High-Tech Industry: R&D-intensive, white-collar dominated; concentrated, self-sustained hubs called technopolies (Silicon Valley, Silicon Forest).
Important Terms to Remember
- Secondary Activities: Economic activities that add value to natural resources by transforming raw materials into finished products.
- Mass Production: Production of large quantities of standardised parts, each worker performing one task repeatedly.
- Mechanisation: Using gadgets to accomplish tasks; Automation is its advanced stage without human thinking.
- Agglomeration Economies: Savings/benefits derived from linkages between industries located near each other.
- Footloose Industries: Industries not tied to specific raw materials, locatable anywhere with road accessibility.
- Agro-based Industries: Industries processing raw materials from farms/fields into finished products.
- Agri-business: Commercial, mechanised, industrial-scale farming often financed by non-agricultural businesses.
- Basic Industries: Industries whose products are used as raw material for other industries (e.g., iron and steel).
- Consumer Goods Industries: Industries producing goods consumed directly by consumers.
- Public/Private/Joint Sector Industries: Classified by ownership — government, individual investors, or combined ownership.
- High-Technology Industry: Latest generation of manufacturing based on intensive R&D, dominated by white-collar professional workers.
- Technopolies: Regionally concentrated, self-sustained, highly specialised high-tech industrial hubs.