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Some lessons from the assembly line introduction
Some lessons from the assembly line introduction
Ford Motor Company's assembly line: a triumph for capitalism
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Ford's Assembly Line
Assembly Line The assembly line has changed the world as
drastically as it has been changed by the world since it
began. It brought people together to work as a group
toward all achieving the same goal. Henry Ford was only
aiming to bring cars into the homes of the average citizen
when he made the most significant to the assembly line
since its inventor, Eli Whitney. Henry Ford not only
achieved this goal, but his legacy is still carried on today.
Assembly lines of cars as well as many other househo
appliances have helped shape the twenty-first century. The
assembly line has brought together many workers together
to work only on their specific part of a car, therefore
building them much faster. This is done using many separate
steps. First, the parts of the car are made, and the frame is
placed on a conveyor belt. Workers are stationed along the
belt to form an assembly line. As the conveyor belt moves
the car, each worker performs a task that they are
specialized in. Each worker must perform their task quickly
and precisely, because f one worker stops, the entire line
will have to either slow down or stop completely to wait.
The modern assembly line as we know it would not exist
without the contributions of Henry Ford. Ford was born in
1863. In 1903, at the age of forty, he founded Ford Motor
Company. He Mooney 2 began the use of the car
assembly line that is now commonplace by using it to build
the famed model-T in 1908. When Ford began putting the
mass-produced cars on the market, they could offer their
cars for so much less than their competition that the co
etition had to upgrade the features of their cars drastically
just to compete. Eventually, other car companies also
began to use assembly lines. Ford began to falter and was
passed in sales by Oldsmobile in 1927. Ford had to come
up with a new sales pitch in time to avert disaster. Later
that same year, Ford began rolling the model-A off of their
assembly lines. The automobile age had begun, and there
was a car parked in front of almost every home in the
post-depression United States. In conclusion, the
automobile assembly line helped launch the US into the
twentieth century. The assembly line has made a profound
impact on not only the United States, but on the entire
world. It has brought not only cars, but electric appliances
and many other products into the homes of people who
otherwise could never have afforded them. The operation
of the assembly line has also been changed profoundly by
This idea, to some extent, came from his desire to sell his cars on Main Street in Oshkosh and Topeka. By using the standardized Model T, Ford was able to produce a great amount of cars that are identical for cheap. The assembly line made every working man have the same task and to do that task well and efficient. The assembly line lead to mass production which increased the production by an incredible amount. All three steps contributed to helping Ford accomplish economies of scales because each step decreased the cost of Model T by spreading the costs out over a large number of cars. The process of lowering prices and increasing sales was going right and the people made it plain that they liked the
In the early twentieth century, a prominent Michigan businessman fathered the American automobile industry. This innovative engineer and machinist revolutionized the world’s manufacturing techniques with the advent of the “moving assembly line” technique for mass production. Henry Ford’s innovations will forever change transportation and the American industry. With his acquired wealth and power, Ford turned his head towards politics. In 1918 Ford became the leading candidate for a Michigan senate seat; however he was unable to achieve this goal.
Ironically the Saturn car company, a division of General Motors, was one of the first auto makers to try to solve the inherent problems of the assembly line. Instead of each worker doing the same thing all day long, Saturn created a system where lineworkers are organized into workgroups which combine to complete a major, visible portion of the car. Saturn also informs the lineworkers specifically who they are making each individual car for and where it will be sent whenever possible. These small changes along with many other recent advances have proven to make a tremendous difference in worker satisfaction and loyalty and continue to help humanize an inhuman job.
Henry Ford was a pioneer in the use of the assembly line in the automobile
The Ford Motor Company (FMC) was founded in Detroit in 1903 and began shortly thereafter exporting cars to European branches. Cross-border assembly started in Canada in 1904 and was later implemented in the European markets. The first European plant was established in 1911 in England, and this was followed with other lower volume assembly plants across the European continent. All the plants and branches assembled and sold the Model T, using American methods and practices. This proved to be a success in the beginning, but in the long run, “(…) this proved a costly and unsuccessful strategy in Europe’s diverse markets” (Bonin et al., p. 15). By the late 1920s most of its European subsidiaries were struggling and Ford had to change his approach to the European market.
When asked the question, “If you could meet any American of historical significance who would it be?” For me, I chose Henry Ford. Henry Ford is an iconic American who most people think invented the car, but the car had been invented some time before Ford. Although he did design a brand of car, which is still very much popular today, Henry Ford is famous for using the assembly line to produce his cars much faster and much cheaper than his competitors. A middle-class American could now afford an automobile that was dependable and stylish too. Henry Ford was “an automaker, the man who founded the Automobile Age.” (Brinkley 2003, 523)
Henry Ford was born on July 30 in 1863 in Greenfield Township, Michigan he was one of the first American industrialists and wanted to make a difference in the automobile industry. Back then, before 1908 automobiles were expensive that only rich people could afford. Henry Ford wanted to change this and wanted everyone to have a vehicle to drive. He was able to accomplish this by the assembly line, in which it created more cars in less time. The first car Henry Ford made was the Model T created on the assembly line. Ford’s innovation in manufacturing created less expensive cars and higher wage jobs.
The First production of the Model T came out on October 1, 1908 at the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit. (www.hfmgv.org) At the time the Model T was going for a price around $850 and by the Twenties a newer model could be bought for at a price of $275.(Gordon) Although having a Model T, was a sign of wealth, it was awfully cheaper than other cars being manufactured by the other manufactures. The Model T was different from all other cars being made at the time because Ford found a way to make his car affordable. The Low Price of the Model T sent a boom around the nation. "Over the next 19 years, Ford would build 15,000,000 automobiles with the Model "T" engine, the longest run of any single model apart from the Volkswagen Beetle." (www.hfmgv.org) "In 1900 America produced 4,100 automobiles; in 1908, the year of the Model T's advent, the number had risen to 63,500; in 1909 it had nearly doubled, to 123,900. In 1916 it stood at 1,525,500." (Gordon)
In Helbroner & Singer, Mr. Ford is discussed a great deal in chapter 10 Workers and Work. It is fitting that he be discussed in that chapter, due to the hard workers mentality he maintained and his actions concerning his position on the prices of his cars to fit the wages of his workers. H&S describes one of his greatest contributions as being the creation of the assembly line. This creation as H&S says, ^ deliberately speeded up the pace of work as machinery determined the pace of labor^. It also says, ^ the character of work was changed.^ B. Historical Interpretation 1. The author gives a somewhat normal account of Mr. Ford^s life, by normal
Henry Ford's assembly line in Detroit was the largest one in the country. When Ford first started making cars, the only car he made was a black Model-T. Almost everybody in the United States had a car. Three-out-of-four families owned one or more cars. With the assembly line they made a lot more cars in one day than they did before. Instead of payin...
Henry Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903 with 12 investors supplying him with only $28,000. By 1918 half of all cars in America were Ford Model T’s. The Ford Motor Company developed an assembly line which mandated that all cars produced were painted black because of the paint’s quicker drying time. Henry Ford writes that “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black (Ford & Crowther).” By 1927, the t...
government made construction of new roads one of its top priorities by 1920. By 1926, however, the Lizzie had become outdated in a rapidly expanding market for cheaper cars. While Henry Ford had hoped to keep up production of the Model T while retooling his factories for its replacement, according to history.com/topic henry-Ford the Model A, lack of demand forced his hand. On May 25, 1927, he made headlines around the world with the announcement that he was discontinuing the Model T. and from that day forward his company still strives lives and it's still here! Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, and died on April 7, 1947 (Henry Ford, 2018).
In order to improve the efficiency, workers are required not to think during finishing small tasks in assemble line working in some factories, so workers act like robots. What is more important , simple and repeat task can not provide innovation and inspiration for workers, which keeps the assemble line in a stable environment. Assembly line production can also suffer from personnel issues due to the monotony of the work. In craft or job production, a worker is typically responsible for the creation of an entire product and may be called upon to use a variety of different skills. Many assembly lines are so segmented that each worker is expected to perform a single task over and over again, which may result in motivational issues.
By 1899 Ford created a more proper looking motorcar with the help of wealthy businessman William Murphy. It had high wheels, a padded double bench, brass lamps, mud guards, and a "racy" look. In the same year Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company. Within 3 years Ford had built an improved, more reliable Quadricycle, using a four-cylinder, 36 horsepower-racing engine. In 1901 his car beat what was then the world's fastest automobile in a race before a crowd of eight thousand people in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The publicity he received for this victory allowed Ford to finance a practical laboratory for refining his auto ideas. In 1903 Ford launched his own car company, The Ford Motor Car Company, and by January 1904 he had sold 658 vehicles. By 1908 he built the famous Model T, a car that was affordable to the middle class. The automobile was no longer the toy of the rich.
Manufacturing methods advanced and transformed throughout the Industrial Revolution. Mass production is a system of manufacturing where machines quickly produce large quantities of product. Interchangeable parts are pieces of products that are made identically. These identical parts were easy to replace and allowed products to last longer. Henry Ford, who was the previous owner of Ford Motor Company, used interchangeable parts in the automobiles he produced to help keep the costs down. Ford also developed the assembly line. An assembly line uses workers and machines in a succession to create