BusinessWeek online has an interesting story about “The Making of a LEGO Brick”.
Let’s hear it for LEGO! Forty-eight years after they were introduced, LEGO toys are still much beloved by children and parents alike for their bright colors, durability, and the amount of imagination they inspire during play. Compared to the high-tech toys of today, LEGO bricks look exceedingly simple. But their precise production process is nothing to scoff at. Each LEGO brick must have that perfect grasp — strong enough to hold onto another brick but easy enough for a child to pull apart. The production of LEGO bricks is so accurate that only 18 out of 1 million LEGO elements produced is considered defective. It’s an astonishing number, considering that 15 billion LEGO components are made every year.
Coming from a manufacturing background this is pretty amazing stuff.¬ I would love to see their manufacturing process in action.
Technorati Tags: Manufacturing, lego
Hi Earl,
Yeah. I absolutely love Lego. Always have. I remember back when I was doing construction in the summers I worked on some piping in a then new Lego plant in the northeast end of Toronto. Unfortunately we were long gone by the time it opened. Not sure if it was for manufacturing or just a warehouse/distribution centre.
On the topic of manufacturing, I’d love to see the design offices for the Lego stuff. I sometimes get to see neat things through the course of my work. One place was a plant that made beer bottles. The machinery was literally 70 or 80 years old, the place was about 120 degrees inside. Everything was relatively dark and these hulking machines were taking in reddish white hot molten glass down these chutes and sending out glowing red beer bottles about 3 dozen at a time. Kinda like a scene from the Matrix but for real. A mass of pipes, tubes, and machinery.
I was actually quite surprised that it met any kind of workplace safety requirements. Nice place to visit, crappy place to work. ;)
Hi Richard,
Since I would think that the production of Lego Bricks requires some type of molding (i.e. heat and possibly powder/dust) it might be a less environmental friendly place then I imagine. Of course it could be some type of heat stamping using plastic sheets.
I agree the design offices for Lego would be awsome! I don’t know if any of us “kids” that had Lego’s growing up ever completely outgrows them. I hope not! :)
Earl,
The precision (and lack of any kind of seams) is really pretty good. I don’t think I’ve ever a lego piece that wouldn’t fit properly. Sure, some are easier or tougher to get apart than others, but all in all over the span of billions of pieces you’ve got to be impressed.
That’s one thing I try to imprint upon students in the structures course I teach part time: The fact that almost everything they touch or use or see during every day has been designed by someone. Someone had to decide how thick those aerosol cans have to be, someone had to decide what the best thickness of tupperware lid should be, the guage of metal for the legs of your chair.. it goes on and on. People just don’t realize the importance of design in virtually *everything* they do. The design part is fascinating to me. The fact that the majority of people don’t care is even more so!