How did dowelled joints make dining chairs quicker and cheaper to produce than mortise-and-tenon joints?

In the furniture industry, the shift toward using dowelled joints instead of traditional mortise-and-tenon joints significantly increased production efficiency for dining chairs.

Dowelling is a faster and more cost-effective process because it simplifies the assembly of complex chair frames, particularly when components involve compound curvatures or are joined at odd angles. While mortise-and-tenon joints require precise, labor-intensive cutting of a hole (mortise) and a corresponding projection (tenon), dowelled joints rely on simpler drilling operations that are easily automated.1

Modern manufacturing utilizes universal machine-made dowels, which often feature pre-cut glue-escape slots to ensure a strong bond. By replacing the intricate hand-fitting required for traditional joinery with standardized, machine-bored holes, manufacturers can produce chairs in large batches more rapidly and with lower labor costs.12