Inside the factories. Real numbers, with sources.
How are everyday things made? LEGO's factory in Billund moulds 36,000 pieces a minute, accurate to two thousandths of a millimetre. KitKat makes 5,000 bars a minute and hides broken KitKats inside. Crayola turns out 12 million crayons a day in Pennsylvania. A marshmallow Peep once took 27 hours; now a machine does it in minutes. And Tesla builds its robotaxi in big chunks clicked together like Lego. Every story below links to its sources.
Wafer, filling, chocolate, snap. Simple, right? Inside the factory it's robots, giant wafer sheets and one recycling trick most people never guessed.
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Long before the cheerful orange grin, people in Ireland and Scotland carved faces into turnips, potatoes and beets. Here's how a cheap root vegetable became a pumpkin, and why the old version looked like a shrunken skull.
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Peeps, the sugar-coated marshmallow chicks Americans love (or love to hate), are all made in one factory in Pennsylvania. Robots give them their eyes, and a camera throws out the cross-eyed ones.
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A paper cup, a layer of chocolate, a plug of peanut butter, a little shake and a puff of air. And behind it, a family row that made Hershey promise to go back to the classic recipe.
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Most cars crawl down one long line. Tesla's little two-seater is built in big chunks at the same time, then clicked together. Clever trick, big promises, and one very public haircut bet.
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Wax, colour, a mould and seven minutes of patience. Inside the Pennsylvania factory that still makes most of the world's best-known crayons.
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Plastic grains, a lot of heat, a mould accurate to two thousandths of a millimetre and a few robots that never sleep. Inside the factory in Billund, Denmark.
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