Division of labour – meaning and origin.
What is division of labour ?
Division of labour may be defined as a system of breaking down production processes into different stages so that each stage is undertaken or handled by an individual. This division of production processes, will depend on the type, size of the industry and goods produced. It should be known that in modern times, division of labour is more applicable in an industrial economy than in agricultural economy. It does not mean that division of labour applies only in an industry; no, far from that, even in a home, the father, mother, sons and daughters play different but complementary roles.
For example: Division of labour takes place in a bakery whereby production process is broken down into distinct stages such as: mixing of flour, grinding of flour, moulding and cutting into various sizes, loading into the oven, removal from the oven, removal from the pan and finally selling of the bread. Another example is textile industry which is subdivided into: spinning, weaving and dyeing, warping, beaming, drafting, denting.
The Origin of Modern Division of Labour
It was one of the forefathers of Economics – Adam Smith who enunciated the theory of division of labour in 1776 in his book titled The Wealth Of Nations. Adam Smith visited a place where pins were made and found that pin- making involved eighteen different processes at that time. He also found that one man was co-ordinating all the processes of pin-making all alone. As a result of this rigorous and slow process involved in the processes of making pins, that man was producing 20 pins a day. Adam Smith came to a conclusion that if these eighteen pin-making processes were handled by different individuals instead of one man, more pins will be produced. This idea of division of labour thought out by Smith was then applied, and as a result, 48,000 pins were produced per day. This is how the application of modern division of labour came into existence in our present day.
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