What was the name of Henry Fords factory adopted method of production?

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On the chassis assembly lines, frames, axles, gas tanks, engines, dashboards, wheels, radiators, and bodies came together in that order to produce finished, running automobiles. In this view of installing the assembled dashboards, workers connect ignition wires, spark controls, and throttle controls to the engine, and connect the steering column to the tie rods on the front axle.

Cars changed the way people lived, worked, and enjoyed leisure time; however, what most people don’t realize is that the process of manufacturing automobiles had an equally significant impact on the industry. The creation of the assembly line by Henry Ford at his Highland Park plant, introduced on December 1, 1913, revolutionized the automobile industry and the concept of manufacturing worldwide.

Henry Ford was not a newcomer to the business of automobile manufacturing. He built his first car, which he christened the “Quadricycle,” 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.

Henry Ford had a goal of making automobiles for the multitudes. The Model T was his answer to that dream; he wanted them to be both sturdy and cheap. In an effort to make Model T’s cheaply at first, Ford cut out extravagances and options. Buyers couldn’t even choose a paint color; they were all black. By the end of production, however, the cars would be available in a wide variety of colors and with a wide variety of custom bodies.

The cost of the first Model T was set at $850, which would be approximately $21,000 in today’s currency. That was cheap, but still not cheap enough for the masses. Ford needed to find a way to cut down the price even further.

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 consulted with Frederick Taylor, creator of scientific management, to examine the most efficient modes of production. 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 into the information Taylor suggested 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, every Model T produced on Ford's 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.

As time passed, Ford used assembly lines more flexibly than he is generally given credit for. He used multiple parallel lines in a start-stop mode to adjust output to large demand fluctuations. He also used sub-systems which optimized extraction, transportation, production, assembly, distribution, and sales supply chain systems. 

Perhaps his most useful and neglected innovation was the development of a way to mechanize production and yet customize the configuration of each Model T as it rolled off the block. Model T production had a core platform, a chassis consisting of engine, pedals, switches, suspensions, wheels, transmission, gas tank, steering wheel, lights, etc. This platform was continually being improved. But the body of the car could be any one of several types of vehicles: auto, truck, racer, woody wagon, snowmobile, milk wagon, police wagon, ambulance, etc. At peak, there were eleven basic model bodies, with 5,000 custom gadgets that were manufactured by external companies that could be selected by the customers.

The immediate impact of the assembly line was revolutionary. The use of interchangeable parts allowed for continuous workflow and more time on task by laborers. Worker specialization resulted in less waste and a higher quality of the end product.

Sheer production of the Model T dramatically increased. The production time for a single car dropped from over 12 hours to just 93 minutes due to the introduction of the assembly line. Ford’s 1914 production rate of 308,162 eclipsed the number of cars produced by all other automobile manufacturers combined.

These concepts allowed Ford to increase his profit margin and lower the cost of the vehicle to consumers. The cost of the Model T would eventually drop to $260 in 1924, the equivalent of approximately $3,500 today.

The assembly line also drastically altered the lives of those in Ford’s employ. The workday was cut from nine hours to eight hours so that the concept of the three-shift workday could be implemented with greater ease. Although hours were cut, workers did not suffer from lower wages; instead, Ford nearly doubled the existing industry-standard wage and began paying his workers $5 a day.

Ford’s gamble paid off—his workers soon used some of their pay increases to purchase their own Model Ts. By the end of the decade, the Model T had truly become the automobile for the masses that Ford had envisioned.

The assembly line is the primary mode of manufacturing in the industry today. Automobiles, food, toys, furniture, and many more items pass down assembly lines worldwide before landing in our homes and on our tables.

While the average consumer does not think of this fact often, this 100-year-old innovation by a car manufacturer in Michigan changed the way we live and work forever.

Forget the Model T—Ford’s real innovation was the moving assembly line. It didn’t just usher in the age of the car; it changed work forever.

He first fully implemented his innovation on December 1, 1913. Like a lot of his other industrial production insights, the assembly line was met with hatred and suspicion by many of his workers.

Before 1913, Ford and many other car makers put together entire cars at one station. A team of workers labored on each car, writes Tony Swan for Car and Driver. The innovation of the moving assembly line cut the number of workers required and reduced the time it took to assemble a car. It also gave the company more control over the pace. For the Ford Motor Company: amazing. For his workers: Eh, not everyone was impressed.

Although probably the most important example of his technological innovation, from one perspective the moving assembly belt was just one more way Ford could exert rigid control on his workers.

Assembly line work was, and still is, incredibly monotonous. The line was seen as an insult to skilled craftsmen and another example of the overwhelming patriarchal control a company could have over its workers in the age of mass production.

The horror that was felt about assembly-line style mass production is seen in films like Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis. One 1920s machine worker at a Ford plant told a journalist, “The machine I’m on goes at such a terrific speed that I can’t help stepping on it in order to keep up with the machine. It’s my boss.”

In 1913 alone, Ford had to hire more than 52,000 workers for a workforce that at any one time numbered 14,000, writes Swan. In an attempt to to stem the tide of turnover, he upped the company’s wage rate to an unheard-of $5 per eight-hour workday. The norm for that time was about $2.25 for a nine-hour workday, writes Tim Worstall for Forbes.

Sounds nice, right? Well, $2.66 of that money was contingent on a worker meeting “company standards for clean living,” Swan writes. Ford’s “Sociological Department” looked into every aspect of his workers’ lives, attempting, in a way, to standardize them the way he standardized his production line. Still, the money meant people came from all over the country looking for work at Ford, and many new immigrants found work there (learning English at a Ford school.).

Although the Sociological Department eventually closed, Ford’s basic approach to creating a deskilled blue-collar workforce helped create the reality of work in the 20th century.