HENRY FORD: THE ASSEMBLY LINE The history of modern truly begins with American Henry Ford (1863-1947) and his revolutionary automobile manufacturing company in the early 20th century: founder of Ford Motor Company, he was the chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. lean production Ford's target and strategy At the Ford plant in Highland Park, Michigan, US, the famous Model T was manufactured, starting in 1908. Henry Ford wanted his car to be affordable by middle-class Americans, simple to operate and durable. His focus was not on organisational structure, but on making the best product possible. To do so, he introduced methods that eliminated waste and helped employees work more efficiently: he did not want people to work harder, he wanted people, and his company as a whole, to work smarter. He had an admirable ability to see the associated with a , a flow which started with raw materials and ended with a customer driving away in a new car. 1 flow process MORE The vehicle is considered one of the first mass production cars. 1 Ford's Innovations He introduced new manufacturing techniques from 1913 on, among which: : the use of the moving assembly line allowed work to be taken to workers rather than having workers moving to and around the vehicle; Moving assembly line : the production line did not provide for variation or deviation from the best practice; the employee who performed an action did so the same way, every day, once Ford had determined the best way to do it; Standardisation : Ford's factories were designed so that workers could accomplish their given tasks with the fewest steps and movements; Wasted movement : Ford knew the importance of not creating large amounts of and managed his supply chain to have enough materials on-hand to manufacture his cars based on demand; Just-in-time manufacturing inventory : in 1914, Ford began paying his employees $5 a day, doubling the wages offered by other manufacturers; he also cut the workday from nine to eight hours in order to convert the factory to a three-shift workday; High wages : among other areas that served the customer, Ford improved the delivery service so that cars consistently arrived on time as scheduled to the customer. Customer service A disadvantage While Ford created techniques that led to innovative methodologies, the one area he did not account for was variation: his processes did not provide variety. Model T was not only limited to one colour, it was also limited to one specification: all Model T chassis were essentially identical up through to the end of production in 1926.
