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The cover of How Things Are Made

How Things Are Made

Tim Minshall, 2025

Almost everything you own was made and moved by a hidden system. See how it works, why it breaks, and how your choices can help fix it.

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10 parts, about 21 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Opens up the hidden system of factories and supply chains behind everyday things, from toilet paper to cars
  • Leaves you able to see what it took to make and move what you buy, and to buy with that in mind
  • Written by a manufacturing researcher who visited bakeries, plants and hospitals rather than theorizing from afar

Who it is for

  • Shoppers who want to buy with fewer regrets about waste
  • Students deciding whether to work in engineering or operations
  • Managers puzzled by fragile supply chains and shortages

What the summary covers

  1. A manufactured world we rarely see2 min
  2. Magic: the system behind a toilet roll2 min
  3. Make: what happens inside a factory2 min
  4. Move: why manufacturing is about journeys3 min
  5. Sate: working out what we want1 min
  6. Change: how new products take hold2 min
  7. Connect: how data changed manufacturing3 min
  8. Merge: where making and consuming blur2 min
  9. Survive: making without wrecking the planet3 min
  10. Epilogue: we are all part of it1 min

Recommended by

  • Diane CoyleProfessor, author of Cogs and Monsters
    a brilliant book that shows that manufacturing is foundational to our lives, not only now but also if there is to be any hope for a sustainable future. I learned something new on every page.
  • Anna PloszajskiAuthor of Handmade
    being given a personal tour of the world’s factories by a real-life Willy Wonka

About the author

  • Tim MinshallProfessor of Innovation at Cambridge and head of its Institute for Manufacturing
    • Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge
    • Research, teaching and outreach focus on the links between manufacturing, innovation and skills development

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperBreakneck

    Tim Minshall says a country that outsources its making slowly loses the nearby skilled people and suppliers around it. Dan Wang says what goes is process knowledge, held in people and their relationships, which blueprints alone cannot preserve.

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