Ford installs first moving assembly line 1913
Photo: Moving assembly line at Ford Motor Company's Michigan plant

Henry Ford, in 1907, announced his ambition for the Ford Motor Company: to create "a motor car for the great multitude." Automobiles were expensive, because they were special-made in 1907.

Ford's engineers designed the Model T, a simple, robust car, offering no options -- not even a choice of color. The Model T, first produced in 1908 and stayed the same throughout its life-span. The Model T did not accomplish Ford’s dream of making a car for the "multitude." He had to come up with a way to make the car more economical. Ford and his engineers studied methods to improve efficency and lower prices. The methods were: interchangeable parts, continuous flow, division of labor, and reducing wasted effort.

Ford gradually put these principles into practice over five years, refining them as he went along. In 1913, the first moving assembly line ever used for large-scale manufacturing was born. The assembly lin accopmlished Ford’s goal to lower the price and still make a profit by selling more cars. Ford saw his workers as potential consumers. Ford raised his employees’ wages in 1914 to $5 a day and they soon began buying their own Model Ts.