Jan 14 2009
Ford Model-T and the First Moving Assembly Line
Have you seen the inner workings of a auto manufacturing plant? The mechanical operations of these modern production facilities are amazing to watch as cars travel along and parts get added as they move along. Other manufacturing firms have adopted similar processes for their products to speed up the assembly and to make it easier for the work teams.
Introduced by Ford manufacturing on this day in 1914, was the first moving assembly line when car bodies were pulled along past the work teams. The original system involved the parts and the work teams moving down the lines of stationary autos. The Model T car was the first to be adapted to this new system where the car bodies were moved to the workers, thus the assembly time was cut from 17 hours to 90 minutes per car. To improve the work flow, it was arranged in such a way that as one task was finished, another would begin within a few minutes, with minimal amount of down time for setup. The assembly of the Model T was broken down into 84 steps, with each worker being trained to do just one of these steps.
Ford was inspired by the meat-packing houses and a grain mill conveyer system he had seen in Chicago. He thought that if he brought the work to the workers, they’d spend less time moving about and this would increase the production, thus, the invention of the moving assembly line.
