shop floor
3
3.4
- noun
- /ʃɑp flɔr/
- Specialized
:
planta de producción
- During the busy season, the manager spent most of his time on the shop floor to oversee the production process.
- shop floor assembly
We lost some jobs on the shop floor in in Detroit.
- We lost some jobs on the shop floor in in Detroit.
- The factories and the shop floors were seen as therapeutic environments and were near treatment centers.
- I just got stuck into everyone and anyone that walked on that shop floor.
Examples
-
And this would be for a shop floor job, no management or white-collar or desk job.
Blog text (5) -
On the shop floor, there are rumors circulating that the first aircraft is an illusion, an empty shell, months, if not years away from the end of the runway.
-
Are you talking in terms of shop floor decisions, or are you talking in terms of product policy decisions?
Academic text (1990) -
I'll see you on the shop floor in 20 minutes.
-
Some companies want PLCs only on the shop floor.
Academic text (2007) -
The factories and the shop floors were seen as therapeutic environments and were near treatment centers.
-
Second, because process improvements constituted these countries' major competitive strategy, manufacturing capabilities on the shop floor became their critical focus.
Academic text (1991) -
Fiery melt is poured into molds on the shop floor of a machine parts factory.
Fiction book (1998) -
Labor activists therefore concentrated their organizational efforts on the shop floor and on working-class neighborhoods, especially in the growing modern sectors of industry.
Academic text (1996) -
Charlie LeDuff's report on the Smithfield packing plant there portrayed a tension-filled shop-floor situation.
Academic text (2003)
Synonyms
314
1.0
A small workshop where someone makes or fixes things by hand
61
2.3
A room where people make or fix things using tools
How Noisy
2
3.5
- Specialized
12
3.7
- Specialized
3
3.4
61
2.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the area in a factory where work is done' is directly derivable from 'shop' (a workplace) + 'floor' (the surface/area of a room). This noun+noun location composition is literal and follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun shop floor comes from old workshops and factories where the main work happened on the ground level. The parts shop (a place for making goods) and floor (the working area) create the image of machines and people on the workshop level, so today shop floor still means the part of a factory where the actual 'work' is done.