Let's Learn English! Topic: The Factory! 🏭👩🏾‍🏭👷 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about the

factory. I'm not sure if you have worked in a factory. I

have never worked in a factory but I think I did enough

research and I talked to enough people who do work in factories

that I can say that I could for sure do a good English lesson

on the words and vocabulary you would need to know to talk

about working in a factory or to just talk about factories in

general Um growing up some of my friends' parents worked in

factories. Um my parents obviously we lived on a farm so

we worked on the farm. Uh some of them worked in factories

that made cars. Some worked in factories that made bread. Uh

some worked in factories that made like little lights that

went on trailers. I know it's kind of hard to explain. But

definitely factories are these large places where people are

able to make things. So once again welcome to this English

lesson about the factory. A factory. So what is a factory?

Well in simplest terms it's a gigantic building or a

collection of buildings where things are made. Probably the

main purpose of a factory is to have workers do something and

at one end parts or ingredients or pieces go into the factory

and at the other end something comes out that people can buy

Now it doesn't always have to be that refined. Um but

certainly with a car factory. Um everything that you need to

build a car goes in one end and at the other end brand new cars

are completed. So a factory is a place where things are made.

There are a lot of factories near me in a town called or in

a city called Hamilton Ontario. Um it's a city but it's often

referred to as a steel town. You might have a steel town

close to you as well where they do a lot of Things with steel.

But a factory a place where things are made. We have a few

different words for different factories here in Canada. And I

do want to mention that some of this vocabulary may be specific

to my part of Canada. Okay? So we sometimes call a factory a

plant. In fact in Canada if you go to a factory that makes cars

we often call it a car plant. So when you work at the plant

it means that you work in a factory that makes cars or

something else. It doesn't mean that it's not about flowers or

trees the other kind of plant. But I do know that if you drive

west in Ontario. Eventually you get to a town called Ingersoll

and there are car plants in Ingersoll. I think there's a

Suzuki plant. I think there is maybe a Toyota plant. I could

be wrong on that. But there are car plants. So kind of a funny

way to refer to a factory. But we do have plants. And then we

also have what is called a mill. So a mill would be a

factory that produces paper. A mill produces steel. A mill

produces textiles like fabrics. So you could work at any type

of mill. Um a friend of mine worked at the steel mill in

Hamilton. So a steel mill is a large place that mill's steel.

The process of milling usually means to take pieces to make

something else. For a paper mill they take tree fiber and

all of that and they turn it eventually into paper. Uh a

textile mill would take threads and eventually turn them into

blankets and shirts. And a steel mill would take raw steel

and turn it into maybe nails and screws and other little

things made out of steel. We also have what is called a

foundry. Now a foundry is a type of factory where they melt

metal into its molten form. And then they pour it into molds to

make certain things. So a foundry work with brass I think

copper steel anything that can be brought down probably iron

not steel I'm not 100% sure you guys can fact check beyond this

but to me when I think about a foundry I think of a place like

this where they are making something some sort of metal

that is in its molten state that means it's in its liquid

very hot liquid form and then they can pour it into molds to

make things when it cools down It will be in a different

shape. We also have what's called a refinery. Now I'm not

100% sure I would call this a factory. But a refinery would

take something like crude oil and turn it into gasoline or

diesel. A refinery takes natural resources or raw

materials and turns them into something that's more refined.

We have a verb for that as well. You will definitely see

smokestacks at some factories. That didn't really make sense

did it? At sub factory you might see smokestacks because

factories might do things that require a lot of heat they have

to get rid of that heat. Factories might burn natural

gas or they might burn coal and they need to get rid of that

heat. So one thing that you will often see outside of a

factory or beside a factory is a smokestack. Basically a

really really tall chimney that's used to get rid of

exhaust gases or just excess heat or whatever they need to

get rid of. So in English we usually talk about mass

production. When you mass produce something it means you

do it in quantity. The best example I can give is I can

make a loaf of bread at home. But I can't mass produce bread.

I'm not capable of that. I only have one oven in two hands. But

a factory would mass produce loaves of bread. A factory can

mass produce cars. I could build a at home. Okay I I

actually couldn't but I could try. But I couldn't mass

produce cars. When you mass produce something it means you

make like basically millions of the same thing. It could be

thousands but millions or thousands of the same thing. So

this factory is set up to mass produce bread to produce lots

and lots of loaves of bread which probably all look the

same. We also refer to the whole process as manufacturing.

So when you talk about factories in general or when

you talk about a country that has a lot of factories you

might say something like Japan is really good at

manufacturing. Or that country has a really good manufacturing

industry. So when you manufacture something. The

process of manufacturing it means to build things or to

make things. Um but usually In more of a factory setting. So

in a factory the main part of the factory we often refer to

as the factory floor. So you might know someone who works in

a factory but they might work in an office. They might have a

nicer job. Or you might know someone who works in a factory

and they're out on the factory floor. That means they're one

of the workers doing the actual work. Um a friend of mine who

worked at a steel company. Uh actually my cousin worked at a

steel company. Uh and he worked in an office. But my other

cousin worked on the factory floor. One cousin programmed

computers in the steel industry. The other one was out

on the factory floor actually moving stuff around. So the

factory floor is the area of the factory where people work.

Safety barrier. So we'll talk about some of the things that

you will see in a factory. Factories can be somewhat

dangerous. Um there are lots of things moving in a factory.

There might be carts. There might be forklifts. There might

be things that lift stuff up and down. There might be

elevators. There might be cranes. Um there might be

little hand carts. So sometimes you will see safety barrier. So

if you see these little yellow things pretty much in Canada

anything in yellow is there for safety or to partition or

divide things. There might be yellow lines on the floor.

There might be yellow and orange barriers. Those that's

another color we often use. But a safety barrier is something

that's designed to keep a worker safe. Um doesn't have to

just be in a factory but you will definitely see safety

barrier in factories to protect people. In a factory you might

see an overhead crane. These are pretty cool. An overhead

crane moves along the ceiling of the factory. And then a hook

can come down and go up and move back and forth. So this

overhead crane you can see he's using it to lift up. It looks

like a pallet maybe of cardboard or something. So you

can see at the top there is the hoist part of the crane. That's

the part that will you can call it a winch as well. But it will

pull the hook up and down. And then the blue part can move

back and forth along the yellow of the crane and then the

entire thing can move along the length of the building. So a

very handy machine to move things. It can lift very heavy

objects and move them for people. So it's called an

overhead crane. You will definitely see conveyor belts

in most factories. A conveyor belt is just a long belt. It's

usually a black belt like this and it moves. And so when

things are being manufactured instead of having people carry

it from one part of the factory to the other they simply go on

a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt moves and either a person

puts things on the conveyor belt and maybe takes them off

or a machine might put things onto a conveyor belt and take

them off. Um even something like bread in a bread factory

would go on a conveyor belt. Uh and the conveyor belt might

even loop to cool the bread off. But a conveyor belt simply

a long moving belt used to move things in a factory. And then

we have of course the assembly line. I think invented by Henry

Ford. The assembly line is simply a long line. A long

place where something moves along and it goes from nothing

to something. So this is an assembly line that makes doors

for vehicles. So it probably starts with just the metal part

of the door. And then as the assembly line carries that

first piece along people or robots add pieces to it. So it

probably starts with someone hanging the metal part of the

door. The bare metal. And then the next stage maybe they put

the glass in the door. The next stage maybe they put all the

switches into the door. The next step maybe someone puts

the nice fabric on the door. The next step someone might put

the outside handle on. So an assembly line is so the workers

don't need to move. The workers can stay in one spot and the

thing they are making slowly goes by and each person adds

their specific part. I have never worked on an assembly

line except that one time I was potting plants but it can be a

little bit repetitive and I think probably a little bit

boring. Then we also can sometimes just use the word

production line. We use Production line to talk about

an assembly line where maybe they're not actually putting

pieces together like this line produces bread. Or little

breads or buns I think. Um so you could say this is a

production line too. They're producing car doors. But if

you're talking about something that doesn't need to you know

be screwed together or clicked together. You might simply call

it a production line. Along an assembly line or in effect in

general there is going to be a lot of machinery or equipment.

These are general terms to refer to the things we use in a

factory to make things. So if you worked in let's say a

factory that made wheelbarrows you would probably have a

machine that helps you put the rubber onto the rim of the

tire. There's probably a machine that makes the handles.

There's probably different pieces of equipment. One piece

of equipment might Paint the wheelbarrow. So these are

general terms to refer to all of the things that humans use

when they are making things. Machinery or equipment. Then we

also have automation. So automation refers to replacing

humans with machines that do the same work. So in this

picture I think the human is simply making sure that the

machine is working correctly So they have automated the process

of I think packaging whatever this is. I think way on the

other side that's a packaging machine and it probably puts

candy in a package and then seals it. So a long time ago a

person probably did that but now we have automation and

things are done by machines. I know automation can be

frustrating for people because sometimes people lose their

job. Because a company or factory decides to automate a

certain process and then people don't do it anymore. Robotics.

So robotics refers to the use of machines that can think a

little bit right? So this is called a robotic arm. You will

often see robots in factories but they don't look like like

they don't walk around like hello I'm a robot. It's not

like that. It's usually a robotic welder. Or maybe in

this case it's a robot that can move packages. Usually you will

see a robotic arm. In a car factory you'll see a robotic

arm doing welding, robotic arms painting, and all of those

different things. And then a couple of things about people

who work in factories. We often refer to someone who works in a

factory as a factory worker. They we use the word factory to

describe the worker. Uh does your brother-in-law work in

construction? No he's a factory worker. He works at the General

Motors Plant. Okay that would be a common way to describe a

person. You when you say factory worker it kind of

specifies the type of worker that that person is. So

construction worker factory worker farm worker etcetera

etcetera Etcetera. And then we have a supervisor or manager.

I'm assuming the person maybe the person pointing is the

supervisor or maybe the person with the clipboard. Maybe it's

two managers. And then they they don't know what they're

doing because usually the workers actually know what

they're doing. Sorry if you're a manager I'm making fun of you

a little bit. But you might call this person a floor

manager. You might call them just a manager or supervisor.

It is the person who is in of other people. So if I worked at

a factory and if I was a floor manager or if I was a

supervisor there might be 20 or 30 people working at the

factory in my area and I'm the person who trains them and

tells them what to do and let's them know if they're doing

something wrong.

And there are unions at factories. So a union these

don't exist at all factories but in Canada generally in our

manufacturing companies there are unions. Unions are when

workers decide to join together when they talk to the boss or

the company about how much they're going to get paid. It's

a little hard to describe but unions generally help workers

get better working Better pay. It helps workers to be treated

better. Um most factories I would say almost all factories

in Canada have unionized workforces. So they join a

union. They pay a little bit of money to the union and then

when it comes time to talk about how much the workers will

get paid the union represents all the workers. So unions have

power. Because they can also go on strike. The union can decide

we're not our workers aren't going to work. And they then

they stand outside and protest. But when unions work well it's

good for the company and it's good for the union workers.

Everyone benefits when unions work well. Let's talk about

some of the things people wear in a factory. You will most

likely be required to wear a heart hat. A hard hat is

actually made of plastic. But it's very very tough plastic

and it's meant to protect your head. It's very important when

there are things moving and things above you and things

that can maybe fly towards you that you have something that

protects your head. So we call this a hard hat. In Canada when

I worked in construction workers wore a hard hat and the

supervisor or what we called the foreman wore a white heart

hat. So we wore yellow hard hats and they wore a white one.

I don't know if that's true. I think it's reversed in some

other industries. You would definitely wear safety goggles

or safety glasses. So I would call these goggles. Um these

are these are safety glasses. These are reading glasses but

you might also have glasses that are made to protect your

eyes and we would call those safety glasses. So again in a

factory there might be sparks. There might be little things

flying. There might be the potential for something to hurt

you and you wear eye protection in order to prevent that. And

definitely in some factories you would be required to wear

hearing protection. You might wear hearing protection that

goes over your ears like these red ones here. Or you might

just have earplugs. Things that actually go in your ears. I

have all of these on the farm. I prefer the hearing protection

the little earplugs that you put in your ears when I operate

the tractor. I wear those but a factory can be a very very loud

place so loud that it could damage your hearing so you

would wear hearing protection. You might wear a safety vest. A

safety vest is designed to make you more visible. It won't you

if something hits you but it makes it easy for other people

in the factory to see you. So if you work in a place where

maybe someone drives a forklift around or maybe people are

operating equipment that they can move. Um or even if people

just walk really fast you might be required to wear a safety

vest so that you are highly visible. And then you might

have to wear work gloves. So these are a pretty common type

of work glove in Canada. They're usually made the palm

is usually made of leather. The glove itself is usually made of

leather or another very very tough fabric. Uh and work

gloves are meant to protect your hands. They don't

necessarily keep your hands warm. Like a normal pair of

work gloves is more to protect your hand. It's not to keep

your hand warm. That being you can buy work gloves that are

insulated so they protect your hand and keep your hand warm as

well. But this would be if you went to a store in Canada and

said do you have any work gloves? This is what they would

look like. Those are definitely work gloves. And then we also

have what are called work boots or steel toed boots. A work

boot is meant to protect your your foot. I was going to say

feet. Work boots protect your feet. A work boot protects your

foot. Um and generally it has a number of things built in to do

that. The toe is either made out of steel or some sort of

very very hard material. So if something landed on your foot

you would not get hurt. The the steel toe in the boot would

stop it from crushing your foot. Uh usually the bottom of

a steel toed shoe or a steel towed boot has a thin metal

plate in it or a thin plate in it so that it can't like if you

step on a nail wearing work boots the nail can't go

through. Okay. So that's another thing. It might have

protection along the sides or top. Um but generally it will

have protection for The the toe sometimes for the ankle and

then definitely for the sole of your foot. In Canada if you

look you can see a little green triangle on the side of the

boot. This indicates that it is an approved work boot. You have

to have a green patch a green triangle on your work boot for

it to be considered the right work boot to be wearing. And

then we have something called a forklift. I'm not sure if they

call it this in other parts of the world but we also call it a

tow motor. I think tow motor is actually the name of a company

that makes forklifts. But a forklift is a small machine

that you can drive around and it has forks that you can use

to lift pallets. So a pallet I should have had a picture of a

pallet. But if you look at the far end of the forklift just

above the forks. A pallet is some Something made of wood or

plastic so that the forks of a forklift can go in and lift it

easily. So often a factory will make things and put those

things on pallets so that you can move them around easily

with a forklift. And then factories sometimes create

pollution. Not always. We saw that with the smokestacks as

well. In Canada we are trying very hard to reduce the amount

of pollution created by our Factories. Certainly this type

of pollution in Canada is illegal. You can't simply put

dirty water or toxic waste into rivers and lakes. It's just not

allowed. Um but we are working on our emissions now. So that's

the smoke and pollution that comes out of a smokestack. But

yes sometimes factories do cause pollution. Uh when a

factory is done making something they usually put it

in a warehouse. So a warehouse is a gigantic building where

things can be stored usually on very sturdy shelves. You can

see there's all pallets here with things on the pallets. So

they used a forklift to put those things on those shelves.

You might even have a warehouse at the other end of the

factory. So a a car plant for example a car factory they

might have a warehouse that has all the parts. And then at the

other end they might have a warehouse where they park the

cars. Although usually they park the cars outside don't

they? That's probably a bad example. Let me let me try to

think of another example. At a bread factory they might have a

warehouse that has flour and sugar and all the ingredients

in bags. And then at the other end of the factory they might

have a warehouse filled with bread in bags ready to go to

the stores. But a warehouse is simply a very very large

building where you can keep things for a day or a week and

eventually it will go out to stores or other places. And

then there's also something called quality control. So

quality control is when let's say you worked at a bread

factory you probably take one loaf of bread every hour from

the production line and you might even taste it or test it

to make sure the people and the machines and the equipment are

making the bread properly. Okay. So quality control

happens at the end of the process. If you were in let's

say you worked in factory that made taps. You would probably

take one tap for every thousand you make and test that tap to

make sure it has been built properly. Quality control. So

this might also be a Canadian term. I'm not sure. But we have

different areas in our towns and cities. We have residential

areas where people live. We have commercial areas where you

find stores. And then we have the industrial area where you

find factories and businesses. Um we sometimes call these

industrial parks. They're not really parks. It's kind of a

funny use of the word park. But if you go to my local town

there is an industrial park and there's a factory that makes I

think it's closed now but a factory that may that used to

make fertilizer a factory that used to oh there's a factory

that makes packaging but it's in the industrial park. So you

could just call it the industrial part of town. But in

my part of the world we would refer to the area of a town or

city where there's lots of factories. We would call it an

industrial park.