With the onset of the information age, industrial production is not going to wither away. On the contrary, new industries are emerging that serve modern technological needs. The production structure is becoming more complex, flexible and versatile.
Main types of industrial production
Having originated in the depths of a subsistence household, industry has gone through several stages in its development. Gradually, separate production groups emerged, the focus of which began to be determined by local conditions and largely depended on the availability of appropriate raw materials and materials.
The separation of individual industries took place along with the development of science, technology and the division of labor.
Within the framework of the modern world economy, it is customary to divide the entire industry into two large groups: extractive and processing. The first type is aimed at extracting a wide variety of raw materials from the natural environment: minerals, timber, fish, animals, and so on.
In the current economy, focused on the use of combustible fuels, a special role is assigned to the extraction of hydrocarbons. In the most developed countries, the enterprises of the extractive industries are the property of the state and bring considerable income to the budget.
Manufacturing industries deal with the processing of mined raw materials. Within the framework of the manufacturing industry, semi-finished products are produced, which then themselves become the starting materials for the manufacture of machines, mechanisms, building structures and other types of industrial products, including those required in the field of high technologies.
Conventionally, the entire industry is also subdivided into heavy and light. The first type includes most of the extractive industries, metallurgy, mechanical engineering. Light industry is represented by factories for the production of consumer goods, textile factories, shoe factories.
Modern industries
The actual branches of industry are called individual parts of the production sphere, the enterprises of which are aimed at the manufacture of specific products. Each industry has its own technologies and characteristics, as well as a different range of consumers. There are several dozen industries today.
According to economists' forecasts, some types of production will eventually disappear, and others will come in their place.
The most developed and promising industries in the world economy are the electric power industry, the fuel industry, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, the chemical industry, mechanical engineering and metalworking. All divisions of the light and food industries, as well as the medical industry have good development prospects. The importance of the space industry is growing every year.
A new direction in production is the so-called information industry. Its tasks include the production of information and computing facilities, communication equipment and electronic equipment. Software development is often singled out as a separate industry. The rapid and rapid development of information technology has brought these types of industries into a number of industries most in demand in the world economy.
