Noted horror writer Clive Barker once claimed that nothing ever truly begins or ends; rather, current things are just continuations of past things, and future things are continuations of present ones. Although interesting, this notion doesn’t work well in the world of manufacturing.
On every production line, there is definitely a beginning and end to each assembly cycle, product batch and the physical equipment that’s used to achieve both. This is especially true for robots, which feature a clearly defined arm and hand, or end-effector.