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Soho Foundry
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<p>Soho Foundry is a <a href="/facts/Factory/GPIW0snN">factory</a> created in 1795 by <a href="/facts/Matthew_Boulton/VSzSaGFD">Matthew Boulton</a> and <a href="/facts/James_Watt/29KvGNW0">James Watt</a> and their sons <a href="/facts/Matthew_Robinson_Boulton/4x81NKW3">Matthew Robinson Boulton</a> and <a href="/facts/James_Watt_Jr./e0bpd1Ry">James Watt Jr.</a> at <a href="/facts/Smethwick/AAJ13ccf">Smethwick</a>, <a href="/facts/West_Midlands_(county)/tTz7YJul">West Midlands</a>, <a href="/facts/England/U9mE5bGL">England</a> (<a href="/facts/Ordnance_Survey_National_Grid/1Njz9TP0">grid reference</a> <a href="https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Soho_Foundry¶ms=52.494398_N_1.946932_W_region:GB_scale:25000">SP037885</a>), for the manufacture of <a href="/facts/Steam_engine/f7hN8vzm">steam engines</a>. Now owned by <a href="/facts/Avery_Weigh-Tronix/9bIlSS5d">Avery Weigh-Tronix</a>, it is used for the manufacture of <a href="/facts/Weighing_scale/6Yvv6frI">weighing machines</a>. </p><p>The early history of the Soho Foundry is of pivotal importance both to the history of the <a href="/facts/Industrial_Revolution/B6E3Fasm">Industrial Revolution</a> and to the study of the development of <a href="/facts/Management_theory/GVfa43B6">management theory</a>. The Soho Foundry stood out from other factories of the day in the sophistication of its planning, its production processes and its management techniques; practising concepts that would not become commonplace until a century later. Comparing its workings to the techniques of <a href="/facts/Mass_production/31Cmgjuc">mass production</a> and <a href="/facts/Scientific_management/rpYYnxuX">scientific management</a> made famous by <a href="/facts/Henry_Ford/BnDDXRrs">Henry Ford</a> and <a href="/facts/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor/cLfxAVbq">Frederick Winslow Taylor</a> in the United States in the early 20th century, the economist <a href="/facts/Eric_Roll/JE5MIfbf">Eric Roll</a> wrote "Neither Taylor, Ford nor any other modern experts devised anything in the way of plan that cannot be discovered at Soho before 1805". </p>