An analysis of the administrative profiles of the first two mass production systems in America

In 1790, Samuel Slater began operating America's first factory using a business format that became known as the Rhode Island system. Twenty-four years later, Francis Cabot Lowell created a new breed of integrated factory, the Waltham system. This paper examines how these systems developed distinctly different strategic profiles. Findings suggest that leader background, backdrop of founding, organizational inertia, and market strategy led most significantly to their differences.