The first moving assembly line in the automotive industry began to churn out Ford Model Ts on this day in 1913 at the company’s Highland Park Assembly Plant. Henry Ford yearned to maximize efficiency in the production of his vehicles. His advocacy for high volume automobile manufacturing allowed him to offer inexpensive, yet reliable transportation to the masses. By combining aspects of still assembly lines from the likes of Olds, with production methods borrowed from slaughterhouses and breweries, Ford reduced the time it took to build a Model T from more than 12 hours to about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Ford was not the first car company to build vehicles on an assembly line. The Curved Dash Olds was an earlier example, but it required workers to move about. Ford’s innovation involved the moving line aspect, which brought parts to workers tasked with one repetitive function. This improved efficiency so much that Ford was able to produce more vehicles in 1914 than all other automakers combined. By 1925, production reached 10,000 Model T’s per day, which sold for a price of about $260.
The story of the Plymouth Superbird and its development is fairly well-known, so we won't…
1983 AMC Eagle Wagon. By Christopher Ziemnowicz The history of American Motors Corporation (AMC) begins…
A first generation Lincoln Continental When Edsel Ford requested a personal luxury vehicle to use…
At the time Oldsmobile closed its doors in 2004 it was the oldest surviving American…
The 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster stands as one of the most tragic and impactful…
Ford Model T c.1915 Henry Ford had one goal: put the world on wheels. To…