Origins of Mass Production USA Based

Ford’s Model T was his twentieth design over a five year period that began with the original Model A in 1903.

Model T achieved two objectives; designed for manufacture and user friendly.

Key to mass production was not the moving assembly line myth; belief then and now. It was the complete and consistent interchangeability of parts and the simplicity of attaching them to each other.

To achieve interchangeability Ford insisted that the same gauging system be used for every part at all times throughout the entire manufacturing process.

Four cylinder engine block was cast as one piece, compared to competitors that cast four individual cylinders and bolted them together.

Ford began in 1903 with individual stands on which a whole car was built often by one individual. In 1908 on the eve of Model T introduction an assembler’s task cycle was on average 514 minutes of 8.56 hours.

Ford first step in efficiency was to deliver the parts to the work stations so workers could remain in the same spot all day.

By 1913 a new plant in Highland Park was coming online to meet production demands and Ford recognized the problem of workers moving from assembly stand to assembly stand if only a yard or two it still took time.

Fords genius was the introduction of the moving assembly line which brought the car past the stationary worker and reduced cycle time from 2.3 minutes to 1.19 minutes.

This innovation was new and highly visible and caused people to notice and falsely give credit to this invention as the Holy Grail of faster assembly times, when in fact it was the perfect interchangeability and division of labor that provided the most dramatic time savings.

Ford’s discovery simultaneously reduced the human effort needed to assemble and automobile and provided cost savings with each additional vehicle made. The more vehicles produced the lower the cost for each one.

From the 1908 beginnings of production until peak numbers of two million a year in the early 1920s Ford steadily reduced the retail price of his car by two thirds.

Early Ford dealership (supply chain retailer)

To forestall labor problems Ford instituted the 8 hour workday and 5$ a day pay

It worked

In a sellers market mass production is logical

Ford sales one year ago

Mass production or ?

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” W. Edwards Deming