Henry Ford and the Assembly Line Jan 17th

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Henry Ford was an American industrialist who revolutionized automobile production by taking advantage of a mass production technique called the assembly line method. By standardizing and refining the assembly line method, Ford was able to produce and sell millions of cars and establish himself as a global corporate leader. In 1908, he introduced the Model T, a car that was designed to be affordable, easy to run, and long-lasting. Because of its low price point, it is no wonder why many individuals became Ford owners. In fact, half of all automobiles in America were Model Ts during 1918. It became one of America’s greatest inventions. Today, let’s get to know him better.

In 1890, Ford worked as an engineer in Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. Two years later, he was promoted to chief engineer because of his excellent skills and abilities. Although busy with his full-time job, he was working on his concepts for a horseless vehicle in a small shed behind his home. In 1896, he finally finished his first model car, the “Quadricycle” which consisted of a simple frame with a four-horsepower gasoline engine and four bicycle wheels mounted on it.

Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to improve and continue producing other cars, and with money raised from investors, he managed to leave Edison Illuminating Company in 1899 to pursue his car-making business full-time. He established the Ford Motor Company in 1903 after a few attempts at creating vehicles and enterprises.

Ford continued to manufacture different models of cars. Until 1908, the Model T, also known as the "Tin Lizzie," was introduced as a result of Ford's commitment to creating an efficient and reliable automobile that was affordable to the public. The company received more orders than it could produce, forcing Ford to think and implement mass production techniques such as the use of large production plants, standardized, interchangeable parts, and the moving assembly line. This increased his factories’ productivity.

The moving assembly line was a new way of manufacturing a large number of vehicles utilized by Ford. It allows work to be brought to the employees rather than the workers having to move to and around the vehicle. This made better use of time and resources which allowed costs to stay low as well as increasing the daily wages of the firm’s workers. Assembly lines’ modern definition is “It’s a production system in which work-in-progress is sequentially moved from station to station. New parts are added or new assemblies are made at each workstation, resulting in a final product at the end.” 

Assembly lines became a significant force in the US economy because they spread to a variety of industries, created thousands of jobs, offered higher wages for workers, safe working conditions, and mass production. Most assembly lines are now automated with the use of robots and computers. A human worker is only required to verify the goods at the end of the process to ensure they are not defective. 

It's wise to note that the assembly line was not invented by a single person. It started from a series of smaller breakthroughs and discoveries. In fact, most manufacturers in the 20th century experimented with assembly-line techniques. The assembly line had already evolved by the time Henry Ford started utilizing it in his company. Yet, he set strong production goals, outperformed his competitors, and turned assembly line design and line balancing into a science.

One thing is for sure, the assembly line is one of the most significant innovations in modern manufacturing. Today’s assembly lines continue to feature some of the most modern technology in the world, thanks to Industry 4.0 technologies like IIoT, big data, computer vision, and others. Modern assembly lines differ from Ford's in a way that they receive data from humans and machines in real-time, enabling humans to work more intimately with machines through advanced robotics, collaborative automation, and more intelligent software. They are also considerably more dynamic, customizable, and have more powerful error-proofing technologies.