<P> In the Industrial Revolution simple mass production techniques were used at the Portsmouth Block Mills in England to make ships' pulley blocks for the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars . It was achieved in 1803 by Marc Isambard Brunel in cooperation with Henry Maudslay under the management of Sir Samuel Bentham . </P> <P> The Navy was in a state of expansion that required 100,000 pulley blocks to be manufactured a year . Bentham had already achieved remarkable efficiency at the docks by introducing power - driven machinery and reorganising the dockyard system . Brunel, a pioneering engineer, and Maudslay, a pioneer of machine tool technology who had developed the first industrially practical screw - cutting lathe in 1800 which standardized screw thread sizes for the first time which in turn allowed the application of interchangeable parts, collaborated on plans to manufacture block - making machinery . By 1805, the dockyard had been fully updated with the revolutionary, purpose - built machinery at a time when products were still built individually with different components . A total of 45 machines were required to perform 22 processes on the blocks, which could be made into one of three possible sizes . The machines were almost entirely made of metal thus improving their accuracy and durability . The machines would make markings and indentations on the blocks to ensure alignment throughout the process . One of the many advantages of this new method was the increase in labour productivity due to the less labour - intensive requirements of managing the machinery . Richard Beamish, assistant to Brunel's son and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, wrote: </P> <P> So that ten men, by the aid of this machinery, can accomplish with uniformity, celerity and ease, what formerly required the uncertain labour of one hundred and ten . </P> <P> By 1808, annual production from the 45 machines had reached 130,000 blocks and some of the equipment was still in operation as late as the mid-twentieth century . Mass production techniques were also used to rather limited extent to make clocks and watches, and to make small arms, though parts were usually non-interchangeable . Though produced on a very small scale, Crimean War gunboat engines designed and assembled by John Penn of Greenwich are recorded as the first instance of the application of mass production techniques (though not necessarily the assembly - line method) to marine engineering . In filling an Admiralty order for 90 sets to his high - pressure and high - revolution horizontal trunk engine design, Penn produced them all in 90 days . He also used Whitworth Standard threads throughout . Prerequisites for the wide use of mass production were interchangeable parts, machine tools and power, especially in the form of electricity . </P>

What helped improve the mass production of automobiles