Moving assembly line
Cadena de montaje móvil
- Date
- 1913 · confidence high
- Place
- Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, United States
- Credited to
- Henry Ford, Charles Sorensen, Clarence Avery (Ford Motor Company); Chicago slaughterhouses (disassembly lines)
- People
- 👤 Henry Ford1863–1947
- Field
- Tools
What it is
System in which the product moves along a belt past fixed workers who each perform a repetitive task. It cut assembly time for the Ford Model T from 12 hours to 93 minutes.
Ransom Olds used a stationary assembly line in 1901; Ford made it moving and continuous.
What it led to
- Mass production and mass consumption
- Radical cheapening of complex goods
- Deskilled labour, industrial unionism and social criticism (Modern Times)
Built on
- Interchangeable parts1785-1801
- Gasoline automobile1886
- Scientific management (Taylorism)1880s–1911
- Chicago slaughterhouse conveyor belt
Made possible
- Fordism1914
- Forklift truck1917-1923
- Mass production of household appliances
- Mass war production (Liberty ships, B-24)