The term plant is occasionally used synonymously with other terms such as firm or business. However, to be precise, a firm or business is the organization set up to oversee production and a plant is the physical location of the production. The one term that is largely synonymous with plant is factory.

The distinction between the terms firm (or business) and plant (or factory) provides a couple of interesting combinations.

• A given firm can operate several different plants. Consider The Wacky Willy Company, proud producer of Wacky Willy Stuffed Amigos (those adorable foam-filled tarantulas and scorpions). The Wacky Willy Company actually operates several plants for the production of Stuffed Amigos. They have a main assembly plant on the north edge of Shady Valley, just the up the highway from the shopping mall. Then they also have a fabric-cutting facility in Oak Town, thirty miles south of Shady Valley, a tag-printing plant in nearby Breezy Burg, and a stuffing poofer operation located in upstate Whispering Falls. The Wacky Willy Company is clearly a multi-plant firm. A single firm and four plants.


• A single plant can be operated by more than one firm. Consider the wireless communications data relay equipment production facility located east of Shady Valley. This facility is used to assemble the assorted computers and communications equipment that enables high speed wireless telephone communication. This particular plant is owned and operated as a joint venture among Shady Valley's four wireless telephone services--OmniCell, Digital Distance, Tucker Trilateral Telephone, and FoneCom. In this case, there is one plant and four firms.