HACKER Q&A
📣 qbilius

How many dependencies does manufacturing a light switch have?


I've been trying to understand how various common objects, say, a light switch or a suitcase, are manufactured if we thought about the entire process starting from raw materials. Where do all necessary materials come from for the final assembly? How are those materials manufactured? If we follow down the line, how many dependencies does manufacturing a light switch have and what are they? I recently realized that all these steps are very much invisible to consumers and I'd love to learn more. Any recommendations where to look?


  👤 dschuessler Accepted Answer ✓
Not a light switch but German computer mouse producer Nager IT tries to disclose their supply chain. Not even they have a clear understanding of where their raw materials come from...

https://www.nager-it.de/static/pdf/en_lieferkette.pdf


👤 __d
It doesn't answer your question, but the Toaster Project book explores the difficulty of making even relatively simple modern objects from raw materials.

http://thetoasterproject.org/