'Here the lathes hum, there the milling machines gnaw off the steel, a little further the drilling machines hum, yet in another place the soldering fires glow.' This is how a journalist described the workshop of the Groningen bicycle factory Fongers in 1902. He sketched the typical picture of an early industrial factory. The northern Dutch manufacturing industry has undergone enormous development since then.
This is well seen at Getech, a company in Westerbork, Drenthe, that makes control molds for the automotive industry. Founder Jan Geerts described it in 2018 as follows: "We have actually been automating our process for years. That starts in the drawing room: we have automated our CAD [Computer-Aided Design, making 2d drawings and 3d models, ed.] process. We also purchased a robotic system, which actually loads the parts into the machine and can run 24 hours a day.'
This contrast shows a transformation of the manufacturing industry that did not happen overnight. The introduction of the steam engine, mass production on the assembly line, the use of electronics and computers, and the creation of smart factories with autonomous machines: these have been defining breakthroughs in the manufacturing industry. Together, they have propelled the manufacturing process into continuous innovation. Industrialization is a long process that can be divided into four successive stages; each stage has its own crucial steps. Anno 2024, work is already underway on Industry 5.0. Industrialization has been an international development. In it, the Northern Netherlands tells its own story, characterized not so much by groundbreaking inventions as by hard work, smart integration and mutual cooperation.
Industry 1.0: The early manufacturing industry in the northern Netherlands
(Northern) Holland was not at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. In England, the first spinning wheels and looms were turning by machine in the second half of the eighteenth century. The northern Netherlands was then still overwhelmingly an agricultural region. The dominance of the agricultural sector would not disappear any time soon, but it did become a driver of innovation that also stimulated the manufacturing industry. In the nineteenth century, the Groningen and Frisian countryside was home to many wealthy gentlemen farmers who, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, were receptive to new ideas and agricultural techniques. Many agricultural innovations were therefore introduced to the Netherlands from the North, such as the grain thresher in 1846.
A striking example is that of the Eagle Plough. During a family visit to America in 1850, the farmer Cornelis Borgman from Kloosterburen became fascinated by innovative agricultural equipment. He had his eye on the Eagle Plough and concluded, "I'll take that one home with me. I'll show them what a wonder machine this is'. It turned out that the plow could also cope in the Groningen clay, and in less than two years no fewer than 170 plows were introduced for farmers in the region. The manufacturing industry in Groningen saw its chance and began to reproduce the Arendploeg. The machines used for this purpose in America were not available in Groningen. Nevertheless, the blacksmiths succeeded in getting production going: the Arendploeg became commonplace.
Downloads
Continue reading?Download the longread - Smart manufacturing