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Henry Ford Assembly Line Analysis

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Ford's assembly line and Model T

Henry Ford's assembly line and his automobile, the Model T, revolutionized manufacturing and the development of today's automobiles and engines. The assembly line and Model T caused American industry to expand and also ushered a new American lifestyle. Not before the 1920s had the automobile become an accepted part of the American lives, and they were "forced" to be a part of the "communication revolution" (Appleby 368; O'Connor 3). Ford did not only change the automobile industry completely, but "Henry Ford was considered one of the most famous and influential businessmen" until his death in 1947, at the age of 87 years old (Schaetzl np).

Ford showed great interest for mechanical and motorized machines …show more content…
The road to success was bumpy for Ford, and he discovered that it was not going to be an easy task. He established his first company in 1899, the Detroit Automobile Company. The company did not last for long, and Ford gave up on it one year later. He founded the Henry Ford Company in 1901 due to Alexander Winston's victory in Ford's "sweepstakes", making Ford a local hero (Life of Henry Ford np). The third and final company was located in Detroit in 1903 with the name Ford Motor Company. Ford was at this time forty years of age, and he started to see a light in the tunnel. His first introduction to the future world of automobiles was his Model T in 1908. His dream was becoming a reality (Schaetzl …show more content…
Using a rope and wince, the assembly line pulled the Ford Model T through the brand new factory, the Crystal Palace, at the Highland Park Ford Plant. To be able to make the assembly line work, it also took 140 workers, making the parts of the car (Ford's Assembly Line np). Ford was the first inventor to figure out how to use the assembly line for complex manufacturing. Bob Kreipke, Ford's corporatized historian, once wrote: "Henry Ford said, 'If I could save every one of my workers 50 steps a day then I could save miles by the end of the year.'" (Ford's Assembly Line). The assembly line reduced the time spent on building each Model T from 12.5 hours to just 93 minutes per car. By cutting unnecessary motion to a minimum, Ford "divided operations into simple tasks" using the assembly line (Appleby 368). Ford was the first carmaker to ever "adopt" the assembly line, and due to the reduction and simplified motion of the workers they were building an automobile every ten seconds by 1925 (Appleby

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