Mechanics · Vol. I|Moving assembly line|1913

Moving assembly line

1913

Bring the work to the worker. In 1913 Ford’s Highland Park plant chained the chassis to a moving line. Assembly time for a Model T collapsed from hours to minutes. The method came from canneries, packing houses, and armories as much as from genius. It also came with monotony, injury, and a new politics of the shop floor.

Highland Park staff under Ford · Detroit

Moving assembly line — Original plate drawn for this atlas. Not a photograph of a museum object or a copyrighted portrait.

How the mechanism is arranged

The work moves; the worker stays. Each station does one task, timed to the next.

How it works

Break the product into short, repeatable tasks.
Move the incomplete object at a set pace.
Stock parts at each station so hands never hunt.

Why it mattered

Multiplied output per worker.
Made price cuts of the Model T possible.
Spread to appliances, electronics, and later electronics’ opposite — robotics.

What it unlocked

For further study

Hounshell. Highland Park studies.
The Henry Ford. Line photographs and tools.

Check

Name one gain and one human cost of a moving line.