On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford introduced
the assembly line concept to the process of manufacturing automobiles, it had
has revolutionized the automobile industry and the concept of manufacturing
worldwide.
Henry Ford built his first car, the “Quadricyle,” in
1896. In 1903, he officially opened the Ford Motor Company and five years later
released the first Model T. Although the Model T was the ninth automobile model
Ford created, it would be the first model which would achieve wide popularity.
Even today, the Model T remains an icon for the still-existing Ford Motor
Company.
In 1910, with the aim of increasing
manufacturing capacity for the Model T, Ford built a new plant in Highland
Park, Michigan. He created a building that would be easily expanded as new
methods of production were incorporated. Ford had previously observed the assembly line
concept in slaughterhouses in the Midwest and was also inspired by the conveyor
belt system that was common in many grain warehouses in that region; he wished
to incorporate these ideas to implement a new system in his own factory.
One of the first innovations in production
that Ford implemented was the installation of gravity slides that facilitated
the movement of parts from one work area to the next. Within the next three
years, additional innovative techniques were incorporated and, on December 1,
1913, the first large-scale assembly line was officially in working order.
The moving assembly line appeared to the
onlooker to be an endless contraption of chains and links that allowed Model T
parts to swim through the sea of the assembly process. In total, the
manufacturing of the car could be broken down into 84 steps. The key to the
process, however, was having interchangeable parts.
Unlike other cars of the time, the Model T
featured interchangeable parts, which meant that every Model T produced on that
line used the exact same valves, gas tanks, tires, etc. so that they could be
assembled in a speedy and organized fashion. Parts were created in mass
quantities and then brought directly to the workers who were trained to work at
that specific assembly station.
The chassis of the car was pulled down the 150-foot
line by a chain conveyor and then 140 workers applied their assigned parts to
the chassis. Other workers brought additional parts to the assemblers to keep
them stocked; this reduced the amount of time workers spent away from their
stations to retrieve parts. The assembly line significantly decreased the
assembly time per vehicle and increased the profit margin.