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The Model T Ford made in 1908 was the most marvelous car of the decade. Five years later on October 7, 1913, Ford made more great news. This time he made the production of his own cars quicker and cheaper by inventing the world's first assembly line for building cars.
The assembly line allowed the workers to stay in one spot. Instead of the worker going to the car, the car came to the workers on a 250 foot long assembly line. Each man had just one simple job to do. For example, if a man put a bolt on, he would not put the nut on. The conveyer was carefully timed to allow the worker to do his job and keep the line moving. The time it took to put a car together was getting better all the time. The car made without the assembly line took 14 hours to make. With the assembly line, it took 93 minutes to make a car. Cars could also be sold for cheaper prices because of the time and cost saved in making the automobiles. The bad or unfortunate part about the assembly line was that workers were getting bored from having to do the same job over and over again. Even though this was really boring, the workers still had to pay attention because of how fast the assembly line moved past them. It was a lot of pressure not to make a mistake or miss putting a part in place. Many workers were quitting from exhaustion and frustration. More workers were needed to work at the Ford factories. In January, 1914, Henry had another great idea to double the workers' wages from $2.50 to $5.00 a day. The day this offer was made, thousands of men showed up to apply for jobs. Workers were very excited about making so much money. They were very proud to work for Ford. People's lives became much better because they had more money to spend. The assembly line also helped to make Henry Ford a hero! Today everything is made with the help of assembly lines: cars, toys, appliances, etc. Assembly lines may be boring to work along, but they help make things at a much quicker pace and for less money. Today’s assembly lines use robots in some jobs where people used to work.
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Henry Ford had spent a lot of time watching the workers put
automobiles together. The workers walked back and forth and collected nuts
and bolts from their workbenches and other bins where they gathered parts.
This process was slow and took a very long time. With such a great demand
for automobiles, Henry knew there had to be a faster and better way to put the
cars together. Henry and his engineers designed conveyor belts that ran down long tables carrying parts and pieces that
needed to be put together. "Every piece of work in the shop
moves," declared Ford. "It may move on hooks, on overhead chains…it
may travel on a moving platform, or it may go by gravity, but the point is that…no
workman has anything to do with moving or lifting anything."
