There have been many previous studies of Roman production, most notably with regard to pottery vessels such as Samian, but also examinations of the production methods of other industries such as glass manufacture or bone-working. Most of these studies have entailed the consideration of detailed evidence from production sites such as kilns or furnaces, and the study of part-made objects and the debris that results from the production process. Finished objects have also been studied with a view to reconstructing some aspects of production, particularly the relationship between artefact features such as stamps and particular workshops or production areas. The production process has, therefore, normally been studied either as an end in itself, or as a means to understand provenance and patterns of trade. In this chapter, I take a different approach, focusing instead on the relationship between production processes and user experience. This has of course already been considered in an indirect way in the previous chapters, in which particular artefact features produced by various production methods have been analysed from the point of view of users. Yet as outlined in the introductory chapter, there is also scope for a more explicit consideration of the relationship between users and production processes, particularly in relation to scales of production and issues such as standardization. We can also examine how constraints on production (for instance those that result from the use of specific materials) in turn impact on the finished product, and so on user experience. Firstly, we will examine the production process of dice, and secondly, production methods for some types of glass vessels. The production process of bone dice is well understood since evidence survives of manufacturing waste as well as the finished product. For bone carving in general, the metapodial bones were favoured, as they were relatively straight. Although they were hollow in the centre, they offered a reasonable volume of solid material. Large dice were made from the complete bone, with a hollow core that had to be plugged at either end.
Assessment of the Design for Manufacturability Using Fuzzy Logic