Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Secondary school №28
in economics on the topic:
"Henry Ford - the founder of the assembly line"
Completed by students of the 9th grade:
Ponomareva Olya
Rybakova Irina
Checked:
Malysheva L. M.
Kirov 2001
Henry Ford.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, near Dearborn, Michigan. Since 1879 he was an apprentice mechanic in Detroit, worked in an electrical company. He spent all his free time making cars. Every evening Ford busied himself in his shed. There were many faults in the car when testing. Either the engine or the wooden flywheel failed, or the transmission belt broke. Finally, in 1893, Ford built a car with a low-power four-stroke engine internal combustion resembling a four-wheeled bicycle. This car weighed only 27 kg. Since 1893, Henry has been working as the chief engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company, and in 1899 - 1902. - to the Detroit Automobile Company.
In 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company, which later became one of the world's largest automobile companies. At its factories, Ford widely introduced standardization and introduced assembly lines. He outlined his ideas about the organization of labor in the works “My Life and Work” (1922, Russian translation of 1924), “Today and Tomorrow” (1926), “Moving Forward” (1930).
Ford was not the only one who gave his time to designing cars in the USA. In 1909 there were already 265 automobile firms, who produced 126593 cars. That's more than them by then
Manufactured in all European countries.
In 1903, Ford created racing car. Racer Oldfield won three-mile races with it. In the same year, Ford organized Joint-Stock Company for the production of automobiles. 1,700 Model A machines were produced. The car had an engine power of 8 liters. With. and could develop top speed 50 km/h. Few? In our times, quite a small speed.
But already in 1906, the “K” model was released (speed in races is 160 km / h).
In the beginning, Ford Motor updated car models frequently. However, in 1908 the "T" model appeared. This is the first car to be assembled on an assembly line similar to the carcass processing line at Swift and Company's slaughterhouses in Chicago. Model "T" was produced, for the sake of economy, only in black and remained until 1927 the only one produced by Ford. In 1924, half of all cars in the world were Ford Ts. It was produced almost unchanged for 20 years. About 15 million "Lizzie Tins" were produced - that's what the Americans called new car. It looked like a small black box on wheels. Needless to say, it was an unsightly structure, open to all winds. But the motor, the motor worked on the conscience.
And this ensured the success of the car. This and comparatively low cost: production after all became mass. From $850 to $290. Ford cars began to appear in Europe. They came to France, which at that time was the leading automobile power, in 1907. But Ford did not create its own production in this country, but built large factories Dagenheim (England) and Cologne (Germany). Production has steadily expanded. At the end of 1912, only 3,000 cars were produced at the factory in Dagenham, a suburb of London. And in about 50 years - 670,000.
... The wide muddy Thames flows. The buildings of a huge factory are visible. Nearby on a pedestal is a bronze monument. On it "G. Ford." Yes, a monument to the king automotive empire, oddly enough, it was not delivered in the USA, but in England.
Ford's car became cheaper. But by the age of 20, it was outdated. On American market Chevrolet, Plymouth, and other models of cars began to push him.
Then Ford stopped his factories, fired most of the workers and began to readjust production.
In 1928 appeared new model- "Ford-A". This car is interesting in that it became the prototype of the GAZ-A car, which was produced by Gorkovsky car factory.
At that time, "Ford - A" was considered the best passenger car in the world. Ford began manufacturing trucks in 1917. After 10 years, a one and a half ton truck "Ford - AA" became on the conveyor, on the basis of which the famous one and a half was subsequently created - freight car GAZ - AA.
… The company grew and grew rich. By 1939, the Ford Corporation had already produced 27 million cars, largely due to the absorption of other small firms. And soon the production of cars in the country was banned: the second World War. On the released production areas Ford began to make aircraft, 8685 bombers were manufactured by the company during the war years. Only in 1946 they began to produce cars again, and old ones, pre-war stamps. Other Americans did the same. automotive companies. By the way, in our country it was not so. Soviet designers were already working on drawings of new models during the war years. And when the military thunder died down, we immediately began to make new cars without a break. Gorky Automobile Plant – a car GAZ - 20 Pobeda and the GAZ - 51 truck, the Moscow Automobile Plant of the ZIL - 150 and ZIL - 110 cars, Yaroslavsky - the YaAZ - 200 car.
Traffic safety is now being talked about everywhere. And first of all concern "Ford". Starting in 1955, his factories began to produce cars with a strongly concave steering wheel, then they used safe door locks, soft lining of the instrument panel and even seat belts.
Ford plants produce up to 4 million cars a year. In order not to lag behind, to beat competitors, the “empire” allocates large sums for experimental design and scientific research. research work. The Ford Research Center in Dearborn employs 12,000 people and has two auto test sites in Arizona and Michigan.
The Ford company created a full production cycle, including the manufacture of steel and glass. The Ford concern built automobile and assembly plants in many countries of the world: in England, Canada, Germany, Brazil and others. In Australia, for example, there are five Ford assembly plants and one automobile plant.
What made Henry Ford so successful? Introduction to production assembly line. Conveyor (from English to transport) conveyor, machine continuous action for moving bulk, lumpy or piece goods. Ford in its production used a conveyor to assemble small parts of the car and even cases. The efficiency of using the conveyor in the technological process of any production depends on how the type and parameters of the selected conveyor correspond to the properties of the cargo and the conditions in which the technological process takes place. These conditions include: productivity, length of transportation, the shape of the route and the direction of movement (horizontal, inclined, vertical, combined; conditions for loading and unloading the conveyor; cargo dimensions, its shape, specific gravity, lumpiness, humidity, temperature, etc.). Also important is the rhythm and intensity of delivery, and various local factors.
High productivity, simple design and relatively low cost, the ability to perform various technological operations on the conveyor, low labor intensity of work, ensuring labor safety, improving its conditions - all this led to the widespread use of the conveyor. It was used in all areas of the economy: in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mining, chemical, food and other industries. Just as we have already seen from the above, in mechanical engineering. In industrial production, conveyors are an essential integral part technological process. Conveyors allow you to set and regulate the pace of production, ensure its rhythm, being the main means of complex mechanization of transport and handling processes and flow technological operations; At the same time, conveyors free workers from heavy and labor-intensive transport and loading and unloading work, and make their work more productive. Wide conveying is one of the characteristic features developed industrial production.
The assembly of products with continuous or periodic movement, carried out forcibly on the conveyor, is called a conveyor assembly. It is carried out in mass production and is aimed at reducing the labor intensity of the assembly process, facilitating working conditions and ensuring rhythmic production. Conveyor assembly requires a strict division of the assembly process into individual elements. Each operation is performed by one worker or automatically. In the latter case, the functions of the worker include only the control and management of the assembly machine. The conveyor assembly is most widely used in large-scale and mass production.
Let's return to the topic of "Henry Ford" and his business and the concern he founded. In the early 80s, the Ford company fell into a difficult financial position, saved its Western European branches, which at that time were doing well. In the face of intense competition, the company's engineers had to take seriously updating the manufactured models and developing fundamentally new designs of automotive components.
Henry Ford created automobile power (in which the invention of the conveyor undoubtedly helped him). The term "Fordism" is associated with his name.
Fordism, a system of organizing mass production that arose in the United States in the first quarter of the 20th century. It is named after the American engineer and industrialist Henry Ford, who first introduced it to his automobile factories.
The basis of Fordism and the new methods of organizing production resulting from it was the assembly line. Each of the workers, placed along the conveyor, carried out one operation, consisting of several (one and one) labor movements, for which practically no qualification was required. According to Ford, 43% of workers required training up to one day, 36% from one day to one week, 6% from 1-2 weeks, 14% from 1 month to a year.
Why did Ford drastically raise the wages of assembly line workers?
In 1913, at the Highland Park plant, Henry Ford launched the first assembly line in automotive industry. First conveyor assembly was applied to the generator and engine, and then to the chassis (assembly time was halved). By the way, in order to increase labor efficiency, two conveyor lines were soon launched - for workers of different heights.
The result of this innovation was the reduction in the assembly time of the car (model T) from 12 hours to 2 (this happened within a few months), which made it possible to reduce its cost and make it the most popular car in USA.
In addition to improving production efficiency by standardizing operations and deepening the division of labor (Fordism), pipeline method production allowed Henry Ford to save a lot on the training of workers (and on skilled workers). For example, the assembly of an engine used to require a fairly high qualification from the worker. After the engine assembly process was divided into 84 operations, each of which was performed by a separate worker, no special knowledge was required from the staff. Each worker mastered one operation and perfected its execution to automatism.
Increasing labor efficiency through the assembly line method and saving on skilled workers allowed Ford to raise wages for workers and put into practice the "theory of efficient wages". The fact is that the conveyor method of production made the work very tedious (the worker did the same thing for many hours in a row) and greatly exhausted the workers (it was impossible to take a break and rest), which led to an increase in staff turnover. Therefore, the increase in wages was largely a forced decision (and Ford was also afraid of the emergence of a trade union at his enterprise).
P.S. Charlie Chaplin in 1936 made a film satire on Fordism - "Modern Times".
Conveyor
conveyor (English) conveyor, from convey- transport) - a conveyor, a continuous machine for moving bulk, packaged, complex or piece goods.
Conveyors are mechanical continuous vehicles for moving various goods over short distances. Conveyors different types are used in all industries for loading, unloading and transporting materials in the production process.
It is generally accepted that the conveyor is an invention of the 20th century, brought to life by the requirements mass production. However, almost all the basic principles of conveyor mechanization were already known in the 15th century. Lifting equipment existed in antiquity: lifting devices used in Egypt in the 16th century. BC e.
Several millennia BC. e. in ancient China and India, chain pumps were used to continuously supply water from reservoirs to irrigation systems, which can be considered prototypes of scraper conveyors. In Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, multi-bucket and screw water lifts were used - the forerunners of modern bucket elevators and screw conveyors. The first attempts to use scraper and screw conveyors for moving bulk materials (for example, in flour milling) date back to the 16th–17th centuries. At the end of the XVIII century. conveyors began to be systematically used to transport light bulk materials over short distances.
In the 30s of the XIX century. for the same purpose, conveyors with belts made of durable fabric were first used. In the second half of the XIX century. the industrial use of conveyors for the delivery of heavy bulk and piece goods began. The expansion of the areas of application of conveyors led to the emergence and operational development of new types of conveyors: belt conveyors with fabric rubberized belts (1868, Great Britain), stationary and mobile lamellar ones (1870, Russia), screw conveyors with spiral screws for bulky materials (1887, USA), bucket with articulated buckets for the delivery of goods on difficult routes (1896, USA), belt with steel belts (1905, Sweden), inertial (1906, Great Britain, Germany), etc. 1882 the conveyor was used to connect technological units in mass production (USA).
Somewhat later, floor foundry (1890, USA), suspended (1894, Great Britain) and special assembly lines (1912–1914, USA) began to be used.
From the 80s of the XIX century. the manufacture of conveyors in industrialized countries gradually emerged as a separate area of mechanical engineering. IN modern types conveyors preserved the main structural elements, which were improved in accordance with the achievements of science and technology (replacement of a belt drive with an electric one, the use of vibration technology, etc.).
The idea of the assembly line in mass production was fully embodied by the automobile manufacturer Henry Ford at the beginning of the 20th century. Trying to make cheap mass car, available to a poor buyer, he introduced in-line production at his assembly plants. Ford himself by no means claimed authorship of the idea of the assembly line. In the biographical book My Life, he remarked: “About April 1, 1913, we made our first experience with the assembly line. It was when assembling the magneto. It seems to me that this was the first movable assembly line ever made. In principle, it is similar to the mobile tracks used by Chicago butchers when butchering carcasses.
The conveyor is indeed intimately connected with the history of fresh-frozen meat production.
For the first time this idea was put into practice by the American Gustav Swift, the creator of a powerful meat industry in the United States. Swift, at the age of fourteen, began working for his brother, a butcher on Cape Cod.
Later, he started his own business and began trading in cattle, gradually moving his goods to the West - first in Albany, then in Buffalo, and finally in 1875 in Chicago. Here he thought about how to provide a year-round meat trade. And if you transport meat in refrigerators, then how to slaughter and butcher cattle before transporting meat? Swift found a railroad company that agreed to transport refrigerator cars, invested in their construction and improvement, and began to transport meat butchered in Chicago to the East, to growing industrial cities. Swift's case quickly took off.
Swift carefully thought out the entire technological chain from the purchase of livestock to the delivery of fresh-frozen meat to the consumer. The most important link in this chain was the cutting of the carcass, for which the “dismantling line” was invented. Swift came up with an ingeniously simple idea: the carcass should move towards those who butcher it. In Swift's meat-cutting shop, the slaughter of a pig and butchering of the carcass were divided into numerous single operations.
This is how Upton Sinclair described Swift's butchering line in The Jungle (1906): “Then a crane would pick it up (the carcass of a pig) and put it on a hanging cart, which rolled between two rows of workers sitting on a high platform. Each worker, when the carcass slid past him, did only one operation on it. At the end of the line, the carcass was already completely butchered.
Ford's conveyor was Swift's "dismantling line" on the contrary: the skeleton of the car, as it moved along the conveyor, was overgrown with iron "meat". Otherwise, the resemblance was simply striking. Here is a description of the work of the conveyor at Ford: “When assembling the chassis, forty-five various movements and arranged the appropriate number of stops. The first working group attaches four safety covers to the chassis frame; the engine appears at the tenth stop, and so on. Some workers only do one or two small movements hand, others much more. Each of the workers sitting along the conveyor carried out one operation, consisting of several (or even one) labor movements, for which practically no qualification was required. According to Ford, 43% of the workers required a one-day training, 36% - up to a week, 6% - one to two weeks, 4% - from a month to a year.
Implementation of pipeline assembly, along with some others technical innovations, caused a sharp increase in labor productivity and a decrease in production costs, marked the beginning of mass production. But the consequence of this was an increase in the intensity of labor, automatism. Work on the assembly line requires extreme nervous and physical stress from the workers. The forced rhythm of labor, set by the conveyor, necessitated a change in the form of remuneration for workers. Henry Ford noted: “... the result of following these basic rules is to reduce the requirements for the thinking ability of the worker and reduce his movements to the minimum limit. If possible, he has to do the same thing with the same movement.
The entire 20th century was the time of the triumphant march of the conveyor principle of organization of production, which was transformed, enriched, but retained its solid core. The conveyor is the basis of the mass production of goods.
Ford, a pioneer in the use of the conveyor, designed and created a complete production cycle, including the manufacture of steel and glass.
The efficiency of using the conveyor in the technological process of any production depends on how the type and parameters of the selected conveyor correspond to the properties of the cargo and the conditions in which the technological process takes place. These conditions include: productivity, length of transportation, the shape of the route and the direction of movement (horizontal, inclined, vertical, combined; conditions for loading and unloading the conveyor; cargo dimensions, its shape, specific gravity, lumpiness, humidity, temperature, etc.). The rhythm and intensity of delivery and various local factors also matter.
High productivity, simple design and relatively low cost, the ability to perform various technological operations on the conveyor, low labor intensity of work, ensuring labor safety, improving its conditions - all this contributed to widespread use conveyor. It was used in all areas of the economy: in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, mining, chemical, food and other industries. In industrial production, conveyors are an integral part of the technological process. Conveyors allow you to set and regulate the pace of production, ensure its rhythm, being the main means of complex mechanization of transport and loading and unloading processes and flow technological operations. The use of a conveyor frees workers from heavy and labor-intensive transport and loading and unloading operations, making their work more productive. Wide conveyorization is one of the characteristic features of a developed industrial production.
At the same time, in the automotive industry, which at one time was the first to use conveyor assembly, at the end of the 20th century. there was a return to the old methods of production. Some firms began to entrust the full cycle of assembling a car to one team of assemblers. This is due to the fact that at a high rate of movement of the conveyor, marriage is inevitable, which is not always noticed and corrected at the end of the assembly cycle. Such flaws are noticeable only during the operation of the car by the owner. Their discovery entails both monetary losses and damage to the prestige of the manufacturer.
From the book A Seance of Magic with a subsequent exposure, or a Sextet for aesthetes author Oldie Henry Lyon2. Thesis: “Science fiction writers bake books like pancakes - three pieces a year. This is a hack and a conveyor!” Let's try to appeal to the classics. Hey, giants, what do you say? Honore de Balzac. Creative way of the writer: thirty years. Creative result: a weighty 24-volume book (if each volume (approx. 30 a. l.)
From the book Where do the beetles crawl in the anthill? author Rozov Alexander Alexandrovich5. Evolution and conveyor. Two strategies of self-preservation Any potentially-eternal evolving system (a biological population or a technogenic self-regulating conveyor) tends to preserve its structure. Depending on the nature of the environment, self-preservation
From the book Why the “party of crooks and thieves” disliked me author Gudkov Gennady VladimirovichSTOP THE CONVEYOR OF DEATH! 40 days have passed since the tragedy at the Raspadskaya mine. We remember the dead miners, we pay tribute to them. But one should not limit oneself to memorial events. We must break the monstrous chain of technological disasters,
From the book Newspaper Tomorrow 479 (4 2003) author Tomorrow NewspaperCONVEYOR OF KILLING January 28, 2003 0 5(480) Date: 28-01-2002 Author: Alexander Biryukov CONVEYOR OF KILLING (Notes of a prisoner of the cell - "psychiatric hospital") In Butyrskaya prison - SIZO 48/2 - almost all the prison psychiatry of Moscow is concentrated. In medical units of other isolators
From the book Results No. 6 (2014) author Results MagazineThey put it on the conveyor / Politics and Economics / What for how much They put it on the conveyor / Politics and Economics / What for how much 270 cases of stroke are registered every day in Moscow. Such terrible figures were given by the head of the Department of Health
From the book Expert No. 21 (2014) author Expert MagazineConveyor on the couch Elena Nikolaeva Give some advice: what do you think is needed to enter the market? - Now, first of all, you need a lot of money! figure /figure Founder: Pai Oleg, 32. Education: MIIT Field of activity: production and sale of furniture
Conveyor (English conveyer, from convey - to transport) - a conveyor, a continuous machine for moving bulk, packaged, complex or piece goods.
Conveyors are mechanical continuous vehicles for moving various goods over short distances. Conveyors of various types are used in all industries for loading, unloading and transporting materials in the production process.
It is generally accepted that the conveyor is an invention of the 20th century, brought to life by the requirements of mass production. However, almost all the basic principles of conveyor mechanization were already known in the 15th century. Lifting equipment existed in antiquity: lifting devices were used in Egypt in the 16th century BC. e.
Several millennia BC. e. in ancient China and India, chain pumps were used to continuously supply water from reservoirs to irrigation systems, which can be considered prototypes of scraper conveyors. In Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, multi-bucket and screw water lifts were used - the forerunners of modern bucket elevators and screw conveyors. The first attempts to use scraper and screw conveyors for moving bulk materials (for example, in flour milling) date back to the 16th-17th centuries. At the end of the XVIII century. conveyors began to be systematically used to transport light bulk materials over short distances.
In the 30s of the XIX century. for the same purpose, conveyors with belts made of durable fabric were first used. In the second half of the XIX century. the industrial use of conveyors for the delivery of heavy bulk and piece goods began. The expansion of the areas of application of conveyors led to the emergence and operational development of new types of conveyors: belt conveyors with fabric rubberized belts (1868, Great Britain), stationary and mobile lamellar ones (1870, Russia), screw conveyors with spiral screws for bulky materials (1887, USA), bucket with articulated buckets for the delivery of goods on difficult routes (1896, USA), belt with steel belts (1905, Sweden), inertial (1906, Great Britain, Germany), etc. 1882 the conveyor was used to connect technological units in mass production (USA).
Somewhat later, floor foundry (1890, USA), suspended (1894, Great Britain) and special assembly conveyors (1912-1914, USA) began to be used.
From the 80s of the XIX century. the manufacture of conveyors in industrialized countries gradually emerged as a separate area of mechanical engineering. In modern types of conveyors, the main structural elements have been preserved, which have been improved in accordance with the achievements of science and technology (replacement of a belt drive with an electric one, the use of vibration technology, etc.).
The idea of the assembly line in mass production was fully embodied by the automobile manufacturer Henry Ford at the beginning of the 20th century. In an effort to make a cheap mass car available to a poor buyer, he introduced mass production at his assembly plants. Ford himself by no means claimed authorship of the idea of the assembly line. In the biographical book My Life, he remarked: “About April 1, 1913, we made our first experience with the assembly line. It was when assembling the magneto. It seems to me that this was the first movable assembly line ever made. In principle, it is similar to the mobile tracks used by Chicago butchers when butchering carcasses.
The conveyor is indeed intimately connected with the history of fresh-frozen meat production.
For the first time this idea was put into practice by the American Gustav Swift, the creator of a powerful meat industry in the United States. Swift, at the age of fourteen, began working for his brother, a butcher on Cape Cod.
Later, he started his own business and began trading in cattle, gradually moving his goods to the West - first in Albany, then in Buffalo, and finally in 1875 in Chicago. Here he thought about how to provide a year-round meat trade. And if you transport meat in refrigerators, then how to slaughter and butcher cattle before transporting meat? Swift found a railroad company that agreed to transport refrigerator cars, invested in their construction and improvement, and began to transport meat butchered in Chicago to the East, to growing industrial cities. Swift's case quickly took off.
Swift carefully thought out the entire technological chain from the purchase of livestock to the delivery of fresh-frozen meat to the consumer. The most important link in this chain was the cutting of the carcass, for which the “dismantling line” was invented. Swift came up with an ingeniously simple idea: the carcass should move towards those who butcher it. In Swift's meat-cutting shop, the slaughter of a pig and butchering of the carcass were divided into numerous single operations.
This is how Upton Sinclair described Swift's butchering line in The Jungle (1906): “Then a crane would pick it up (the carcass of a pig) and put it on a hanging cart, which rolled between two rows of workers sitting on a high platform. Each worker, when the carcass slid past him, did only one operation on it. At the end of the line, the carcass was already completely butchered.
Ford's conveyor was Swift's "dismantling line" on the contrary: the skeleton of the car, as it moved along the conveyor, was overgrown with iron "meat". Otherwise, the resemblance was simply striking. Here is Ford's description of how the conveyor works: “When assembling the chassis, forty-five different movements are made and a corresponding number of stops are arranged. The first working group attaches four safety covers to the chassis frame; the engine appears at the tenth stop, and so on. Some workers make only one or two small movements with their hands, others much more.” Each of the workers sitting along the conveyor carried out one operation, consisting of several (or even one) labor movements, for which practically no qualification was required. According to Ford, 43% of the workers required one-day training, 36% - up to a week, 6% - one to two weeks, 4% - from a month to a year.
The introduction of conveyor assembly, along with some other technical innovations, caused a sharp increase in labor productivity and a reduction in production costs, laid the foundation for mass production. But the consequence of this was an increase in the intensity of labor, automatism. Work on the assembly line requires extreme nervous and physical stress from the workers. The forced rhythm of labor, set by the conveyor, necessitated a change in the form of remuneration for workers. Henry Ford noted: “... the result of following these basic rules is to reduce the requirements for the thinking ability of the worker and reduce his movements to the minimum limit. If possible, he has to do the same thing with the same movement.
The entire 20th century was the time of the triumphant march of the conveyor principle of organization of production, which was transformed, enriched, but retained its solid core. The conveyor is the basis of the mass production of goods.
Ford, a pioneer in the use of the conveyor, designed and created a complete production cycle, including the manufacture of steel and glass.
Efficiency of using the conveyor In the technological process of any production depends on how the type and parameters of the selected conveyor correspond to the properties of the cargo and the conditions in which the technological process takes place. These conditions include: productivity, length of transportation, the shape of the route and the direction of movement (horizontal, inclined, vertical, combined; conditions for loading and unloading the conveyor; cargo dimensions, its shape, specific gravity, lumpiness, humidity, temperature, etc.). The rhythm and intensity of delivery and various local factors also matter.
High productivity, simple design and relatively low cost, the ability to perform various technological operations on the conveyor, low labor intensity of work, ensuring labor safety, improving its conditions - all this contributed to the widespread use of the conveyor. It was used in all areas of the economy: in chernby and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, mining, chemical, food and other industries. In industrial production, conveyors are an integral part of the technological process. Conveyors allow you to set and regulate the pace of production, ensure its rhythm, being the main means of complex mechanization of transport and loading and unloading processes and flow technological operations. The use of a conveyor frees workers from heavy and labor-intensive transport and loading and unloading operations, making their work more productive. Wide conveyorization is one of the characteristic features of developed industrial production.
At the same time, in the automotive industry, which at one time was the first to use conveyor assembly, at the end of the 20th century. there was a return to the old methods of production. Some firms began to entrust the full cycle of assembling a car to one team of assemblers. This is due to the fact that at a high rate of movement of the conveyor, marriage is inevitable, which is not always noticed and corrected at the end of the assembly cycle. Such flaws are noticeable only during the operation of the car by the owner. Their discovery entails both monetary losses and damage to the prestige of the manufacturer.
"Model T" or "Tin Lizzie" was not the first car that Henry Ford assembled, but before that, the assembly was carried out manually, the process itself took a lot of time, as a result, the car was piece goods, a luxury item. With the invention of the industrial assembly line for mass production of automobiles, Ford, as his contemporaries said, "put America on wheels." The fact is that the conveyor for mass production was used before. However, Henry Ford was the first to "put on the conveyor" such technically complex products as a car.
"Model T" or "Tin Lizzie" sold 15 million copies
Actually, the first attempt to automate the process was made by Oldsmobile in 1901. An assembly line was organized there: the parts and components of the future car were moved on special carts from one work point to another. Production efficiency has increased several times. However, Henry Ford wanted to improve this technology.
Henry Ford and his famous "Tin Lizzie"
Ford is said to have come up with the idea for the assembly line after visiting Chicago slaughterhouses. There, carcasses hung on chains moved from one “station” to another, where butchers chopped off pieces, wasting no time in moving from one workplace to another. Be that as it may, in 1910 Ford built and launched a plant in Highland Park, where a couple of years later he conducted the first experiment on the use of an assembly line. We went to the goal gradually, the generator was the first to go to the assembly, then the rule was extended to the entire engine, and then to the chassis.
Thanks to the assembly line, the production of the car took less than 2 hours
By reducing the time to produce a car and various costs, Henry Ford also lowered the price of a car. Consequently personal car became available to the middle class, which previously could only dream of it. The Model T first cost $800, then $600, and in the second half of the 1920s, its cost dropped to $345, while being made in less than two hours. As the price dropped, sales skyrocketed. In total, about 15 million of these machines were produced.
Thanks to mass production the cost of "Model T" has decreased to 650 dollars
Successful production was facilitated not only by the conveyor, but also by an intelligent organization of labor. First, from 1914, Ford began to pay workers $5 a day, which was significantly more than the industry average. Secondly, he reduced the working day to 8 hours, thirdly, he gave his workers 2 days off. “Liberty is the right to work a decent number of hours and receive a decent remuneration for it; it is an opportunity to manage your own affairs,” Ford wrote in My Life, My Achievements.
