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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.12.14 16:01l 54 Lines 2456 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 41235_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 1
Path: IZ3LSV<IV3SCP<SR1BSZ<ON4HU<PY1AYH<PY1AYH<CX2SA<N9PMO<N0KFQ
Sent: 141201/1455Z 41235@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.62
Dec 1, 1913:
Ford's assembly line starts rolling
On this day in 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving
assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile.
His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more
than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes.
Ford's Model T, introduced in 1908, was simple, sturdy and
relatively inexpensive--but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who
was determined to build "motor car[s] for the great multitude."
("When I'm through," he said, "about everybody will have one.")
In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured, he would
just have to find a way to build them more efficiently.
Ford had been trying to increase his factories' productivity for
years. The workers who built his Model N cars (the Model T's
predecessor) arranged the parts in a row on the floor, put the
under-construction auto on skids and dragged it down the line as
they worked. Later, the streamlining process grew more
sophisticated. Ford broke the Model T's assembly into 84 discrete
steps, for example, and trained each of his workers to do just
one. He also hired motion-study expert Frederick Taylor to make
those jobs even more efficient. Meanwhile, he built machines that
could stamp out parts automatically (and much more quickly than
even the fastest human worker could).
The most significant piece of Ford's efficiency crusade was the
assembly line. Inspired by the continuous-flow production methods
used by flour mills, breweries, canneries and industrial
bakeries, along with the disassembly of animal carcasses in
Chicago's meat-packing plants, Ford installed moving lines for
bits and pieces of the manufacturing process: For instance,
workers built motors and transmissions on rope-and-pulley-powered
conveyor belts. In December 1913, he unveiled the pièce de
résistance: the moving-chassis assembly line.
In February 1914, he added a mechanized belt that chugged along
at a speed of six feet per minute. As the pace accelerated, Ford
produced more and more cars, and on June 4, 1924, the
10-millionth Model T rolled off the Highland Park assembly line.
Though the Model T did not last much longer--by the middle of the
1920s, customers wanted a car that was inexpensive and had all
the bells and whistles that the Model T scorned--it had ushered
in the era of the automobile for everyone.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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