K. Eric Drexler is considered a founding figure for modern ideas about manufacturing nanomaterials. Though the idea of a nanofactory has been a subject of his writing since the 1980’s, his book “Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation” sets forth some good basic definitions of what molecular manufacturing is. As published:
Molecular manufacturing: the construction of objects to complex, atomic specifications using sequences of chemical reactions directed by non-biological molecular machinery.
Molecular Nanotechnology: comprises molecular manufacturing together with its techniques, its products, and their design and analysis; it describes the field as a whole.
Mechanasynthesis- mechanically guided synthesis- is fundamental to molecular manufacturing; it guides chemical reactions on an atomic scale.
Drexler’s blog (linked through the image above) catalogs and comments on developments in nano world.
Linked below is a video (which despite the graphic quality is described by Drexler as being relatively accurate as far as the basics of nano manufacturing is concerned).