From cameras and toasters to automobiles, products that make our lives easier and more enjoyable are mass-produced using interchangeable parts. Products were not always made in this way. Until the early nineteenth century, production was limited because artisans made things by hand. The Springfield Armory, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, pioneered the technology that led to the expanded production of consumer and industrial products including clocks, sewing machines, bicycles, and, eventually, automobiles and airplanes.

During the War of 1812, the United States military realized that an army's ability to quickly repair its weapons in war might gain them a decisive advantage. Up until this point, guns were handcrafted and each one was unique. Military leaders began to believe that if part of a musket broke, it would be cheaper and less time consuming to provide a machine-made interchangeable part than a specially crafted handmade part. To that end, the federal government began developing arms made of interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts production encouraged an increase in productivity, which required the labor of increased numbers of semi-skilled and unskilled workers, thereby reducing the need for expensive skilled labor.

Both Springfield and Harper's Ferry Armories set their sights on developing interchangeability, yet the Springfield Armory most explicitly and consistently realized that goal. By the early 1840's, the first practically interchangeable firearms were produced by both the national armories and private contractors in the forms of the US Model 1841 percussion rifle and the US Model 1842 percussion musket. Within a decade, the pioneering work at Springfield Armory was adopted in both the United States and Europe .