一段發人深思的巨型工廠歷史，可能會成為它們的墓志銘

Arequiemfor the factory

When giants ruled the world

工廠安魂曲

巨人統治的年代

An insightful history of giant factories, which may turn out to be theirepitaph

一段發人深思的巨型工廠歷史，可能會成為它們的墓志銘

WHEN it was built in 1721 beside the River Derwent, in Britain"s East Midlands, Lombe"s silk mill became something ofa tourist attraction. Daniel Defoe, one of its many visitors,described its "vast bulk" as "a curiosity of a very extraordinary nature". Employing some 300 people, mostly childrenin ghastly conditions, the mill was not large by modern standards. Butit is widely regarded asthe first successful mechanised factory, an innovation that over the next 100 years transformed the way people lived and worked.

一七二一年，在英國東米德蘭的德溫特河畔，洛姆比水力繅絲廠(Lombe"ssilkmill)建成投產，一時間彷彿一道觀光景點。丹尼爾·笛福（DanieIDefoe)是眾多參觀者之一，他形容繅絲廠「規模巨大"，是「非凡奇景"。工廠雇有約300名員工一一大多是在惡劣條件下勞作的丿L童，以現代標準來看規模並不大。但人們普遍視之為第一家成功的機械化工廠。在之後的100年里，機械化創新徹底改變了人們的生活和工作方式。

Lombe"s mill is thenatural starting-pointfor Joshua Freeman"slively chronicleof the factory, which as the title of his book "Behemoth" implies, concentrates on the largestspecimensof their time. Mr Freeman, a historian at Queens College in New York,travels fromBritain"s textile mills, which centralised tasks that were previously carried out in homes and small workshops,tomonster steel and car making factories in 20th-century America, Europe and the Soviet Union.His journey ends insouthern China at Foxconn"s city-sized plant, which makes iPhones and other electronic gadgets.

在約書亞·弗里曼(JoshuaFreeman)撰寫的這部生動的工廠編年史中，洛姆比繅絲廠自然而然成為了開篇。正如書名《巨獸》(Behemoth)所示，本書聚焦於各個時期最典型的超大工廠。費里曼是紐約皇后學院（QueensCollege）的歷史學家，他從英國的紡織廠（這些工廠把之前分散在家庭和小作坊內的工作集中起來）談到20世紀美國、歐洲、蘇聯的巨型鋼鐵及汽車製造廠，最後以製造iPhone等電子產品的富士康在中國華南地區規模堪比城市的工廠園區作結。

Mr Freemanrolls up his sleevesand delves into thenitty-grittyof manufacturing. He successfullymelds togetherthosenuggetswith social history, on the shop floor and beyond the factory walls, from union battles to worker exploitation and, in the case of Foxconn, suicides.Consider, for example, hisaccount ofone of the most famous factory bosses of all.

弗里曼深入探究製造業的基本事實，下了一番苦功。他成功將種種寶貴信息與社會歷史熔於一爐，從車間內到工廠外，從工會抗爭到工人受剝削的問題，還有富士康工人自殺事件，均有觸及。來看一看他對最有名的一位工廠老闆的描述。

Henry Ford launched his Model T in 1908, turning the car from a luxury into a mass-manufactured product.Ford"s original factory, just outside Detroit, used standardised parts and fitted them to vehicles as they travelled along a moving assembly line.By 1914 this cut the labour timeneeded to assemble a Model T from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes. Before long the nearby River Rouge complex became the centre of a vertically integrated empire, designed to produce everything required to make a car.

亨利·福特在1908年推出T型車，把汽車從一種奢侈品變為大批量製造的產品。福特最初在底特律近郊的工廠使用標準化零件，在流水線上裝配汽車。到1914年，這種做法把一輛T型車的組裝時間從12·5小時縮短至93分鐘。不久，可以生產汽車製造所需一切產品的胭脂河工廠(RiverRougecomplex)在附近建成，成為福特這個縱向一體化帝國的中心。

The Model T, however, soonbecame obsolete. As Mr Freeman describes, this exposed the weakness of the Ford system: it is extremely expensive and slow to switch a giant factory from one product to another. In 1927 Ford halted production and laid off 60,000 workers, causing a social crisis in the Detroit area. After six months 15,000 machine tools had been replaced and25,000 others rebuilt, so that the Rouge was ready to make the new Model A.At its zeniththe factory employed 100,000 people. But it was abrutal placeto work,with employees subject to harsh discipline and tyrannical foremen. "A man checks "is brains and "is freedom at the door," one Rouge worker complained.

然而，T型車很快便成為了明日黃花。正如弗里曼所描述，這暴露出福特生產體系的弱點：一家巨型工廠轉產新產品要付出巨大的成本，耗費漫長的時間。1927年，福特停產，裁員六萬人，在底特律地區造成社會危機。六個月後，胭脂河工廠為製造新款A型車更換了15，000台機床又改造了另外25，000台。在頂峰時期，工廠僱用了十萬名員工。但這是一個嚴苛的工作場所，員工要面對嚴厲的管理和專制的領班。「進了廠門你就得放下腦子和自由。」胭脂河工廠的一位工人抱怨說。

As the switch from Model T to Model Aplunged Ford into loss, Alfred P. Sloan, president of General Motors,prescientlyobserved that carmakers would need to "adopt the "laws" of Parisdressmakers". That meant bringing out new models more often.The shortening of product cycles and the fickle nature of modern markets has duly seen manufacturing atomise into smaller, nimbler, more specialist factories.The Rouge, for instance,lives on, but with just 6,000 workers.

從T型車轉產A型車令福特陷入虧損，與此同時通用汽車的總裁阿爾弗雷德·斯隆（AlfredP.Sloan)頗有先見之明地指出，汽車製造商要「借鑒巴黎制衣商法則""，也就是說要更頻繁地推出新車型。產品生命周期縮短，加上現代市場需求變幻莫測，已使製造業細分為更小、更靈活、更專業的工廠。例如，胭脂河工廠至今仍在營運，但只有6000名製造皮卡的工人。

Some see offshoring to low-wage countries, particularly in Asia, as the mega-factory"slast hurrah.Yet long supply chains and distant plants areleaving producers vulnerable torapid changes in their home markets, so production has beentrickling back. Meanwhile new materials and manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing, aredemolishingthe economies of scale that giant factories have relied on. Although Mr Freeman is not ready towrite offhis behemoths, he has probably written their obituary.

一些人認為，大型工廠的最後一搏是離岸外包給低工資國家，特別是亞洲國家。然而，供應鏈長，工廠遠，令製造商難以應對本國市場的快速變化，所以，生產已逐漸迴流。與此同時，3D列印等新材料和製造方法正在拆解巨型工廠一直依賴的規模經濟。弗里曼倒是還沒表示這些「巨獸"行將就木但很可能已經為它們寫好了訃告。

辭彙積累：

A requiem for the factory

工廠安魂曲

a tourist attraction 觀光景點

in ghastly conditions 在惡劣條件下

it is widely regarded as 人們普遍視之為

the natural starting-point 自然而然成為了開篇

lively chronicle of the factory 這部生動的工廠編年史

travels from .. to, His journey ends in...

rolls up his sleeves 下了一番苦功

delves into thenitty-grittyof manufacturing 深入探究製造業的基本事實

He successfully melds together thosenuggetswith social history 他成功將種種寶貴信息與社會歷史熔於一爐

became obsolete 成為了明日黃花

at its zenith 在頂峰時期

but it was a brutal place to work, with employees subject to harsh discipline and tyrannical foremen. 但這是一個嚴苛的工作場所，員工要面對嚴厲的管理和專制的領班。

plunged Ford into loss 令福特陷入虧損

presciently observed that 先見之明地指出

last hurrah 最後一搏

1. An insightful history of giant factories, which may turn out to be their epitaph

一段發人深思的巨型工廠歷史，可能會成為它們的墓志銘

2. The shortening of product cycles and the fickle nature of modern markets has duly seen manufacturing atomise into smaller, nimbler, more specialist factories.

產品生命周期縮短，加上現代市場需求變幻莫測，已使製造業細分為更小、更靈活、更專業的工廠。

3. The Rouge, for instance, lives on, but with just 6,000 workers.

例如，胭脂河工廠至今仍在營運，但只有6000名製造皮卡的工人。

4. Yet long supply chains and distant plants are leaving producers vulnerable to rapid changes in their home markets, so production has been trickling back.

特別是亞洲國家。然而，供應鏈長，工廠遠，令製造商難以應對本國市場的快速變化，所以，生產已逐漸迴流。

5. Although Mr Freeman is not ready to write off his behemoths, he has probably written their obituary.

弗里曼倒是還沒表示這些「巨獸"行將就木但很可能已經為它們寫好了訃告。

6.Ford"s original factory, just outside Detroit, used standardised parts and fitted them to vehicles as they travelled along a moving assembly line.

福特最初在底特律近郊的工廠使用標準化零件，在流水線上裝配汽車。

7.The Rouge, for instance,lives on, but with just 6,000 workers.例如，胭脂河工廠至今仍在營運，但只有6000名製造皮卡的工人。

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！