For the first time, Henry Ford’s entire Highland Park, Michigan automobile
factory is run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis–
the automobile’s frame–is assembled using the revolutionary industrial
technique. A motor and rope pulled the chassis past workers and parts
on the factory floor, cutting the man-hours required to complete one
“Model T” from 12-1/2 hours to six. Within a year, further assembly line improvements reduced the time required to 93 man-minutes.
The staggering increase in productivity effected by Ford’s use of the
moving assembly line allowed him to drastically reduce the cost of
the Model T, thereby accomplishing his dream of making the car
affordable to ordinary consumers.
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947)