Mechanisation can be studied by observing a specific factory and the materials it uses. The relationship between machine and human labour has more detail than a general label allows.

In a report published in 2009, David Savona describes J.C. Newman machines in Tampa. The cigars observed combined a natural wrapper, a homogenised binder and fragmented filler. The account also shows operators who fed the equipment and staff responsible for maintaining it.

The case preserves human involvement in feeding, operating and maintaining the equipment. It also shows a combination of materials that a general label can hide. When studying mechanisation, it is worth looking at the staff’s tasks, the machine’s functions and the components that go into it all at once.