The reason that we have manufacturing processes is that they offer a way to make money There were processes before there was writing, but they didn't proliferate until money was invented. The first manufacturing processes used readily available natural materials because no one owned the natural materials or made intermediate products. If a process is to make money then the value of the incoming materials plus the work done must be less than the value of the product to customers.

An early process like copper smelting used free materials and had no production costs because time had no measured value then. Another process may turn the copper into jewelry or axe heads for trade. When a technology change occurs, like the introduction of bronze, the smelter modifies the process to make bronze, and the coppersmith either learns how to work bronze and develops a market for it, or goes out of business. Add in the type of person that just has to own more stuff than anybody else and extend the idea of ownership to land and then mineral rights oh, and add lawyers to make and interpret rules and you have the basis for all of human history. So you see, manufacturing processes are important. The health of the planet is also important, but no monetary value has been placed on it.

A process begins with a rough design. Sometimes it is a copy of someone else's design. Some of the industrial spies who take pictures of operating processes are gathering...