Anniversary of the assembly line

Today in 1913, Ford started a new car-making process

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 1 December 2004 / Loading comments

Today is the anniversary of the assembly line, one of the most revolutionary industrial processes ever invented. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the continuous moving assembly line in 1913, it could produce a complete car every two-and-a-half minutes.

The assembly line allowed relatively unskilled workers to add simple parts to a product and, because all parts were already made, they just had to be assembled into a car.

While originally not of the quality found in hand-made units -- how times change! -- designs using an assembly line process required less knowledge from the assemblers, and therefore could be created for a lower cost. As a result, the efficiency and speed of Ford's production lines allowed the company to sell cars for less than any competitor.