3. The assembly line
Ford and the assembly line
1. The mass-produced automobile is generally attributed to Henry Ford, but he was not alone in seeing the possibilities in a mass market.
2. Ransom E. Olds made for the mass market a famous curved-dash Oldsmobile buggy in 1901.
3. Although the first Oldsmobile was a popular car, it was too light to withstand rough usage.
4. The same defect applied to Olds’ imitators.
5.Ford, more successful in realizing his dream of ”a car for the great multitude”, designed his car first and then considered the problem of producing it cheaply.
6. The car was the so-called Model T, the best-known motor vehicle in history.
7. It was built for service on the rough American country roads of that period, economical to operate, and easy to maintain and repair.
8. It was first put on the market in 1908, and more than 15 million were built before it was discontinued in 1927.
9. When the design of the Model T proved successful, Ford turned to the problem of producing the car in large volume and at a low unit cost.
10. The solution was found in the moving assembly line that was displayed to the world in 1913 by the Ford Motor Company.
11. The technique consisted of two basic elements: a conveyor system and the limitation of each worker to a single repetitive task.
12. Minor variations in the basic Ford’s model were compensated for by the low cost.
13. The price of the Model T touring car dropped from $950 in 1909 to $360 in 1916 and still lower to an incredible $290 in 1926.
14. By that time Ford was producing half of all the motor vehicles in the world.
The assembly line
by Robert J. Samuelson
No business figure casts as long a shadow over the 20th century as Henry Ford.
His genius lay in fusing various strands of change – in auto design, in manufacturing methods, in merchandising into a new concept. Ford’s idea was to standardize design, streamline production, lower costs and make cars available to everyone. His wish was to build “a car for the multitude.”
What ultimately separated Ford from his competitors was his concept and obstinacy: his decision to build only one model of car.
Until the model T, many car components were so inexact that they often had to be reworked individually on expensive machine tools so that they would fit and function. Cars were assembled one by one, with workers fetching parts as needed. Car models changed frequently, so that long production runs for most parts were impossible. By avoiding constant design changes, Ford standardized parts and improved the use of machinery. Ford, his mechanics and engineers constantly improvised. One thing led to another. To ensure uniform parts, machine tools were rearranged: all the machines needed for a specific part were grouped together. Before, all the machine tools of one type (say, cutting machines) were put together. Car assembly was broken down into many subassemblies (rear axles, engines, dashboards) and all parts for a subassembly were stored in bins around the workbenches. This freed workers from having to walk to get each new piece. After that came the assembly line in 1913.