Henry Ford’s Assembly Line
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking”
- Henry Ford
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line

Henry Ford and his invention of the
assembly line caused an affordable
car for all social classes which
changed America by creating new
highways, towns, and bringing
America closer together.
Henry Ford
Born July 30, 1863.
 Raised on a prosperous family
farm in Dearborn, Michigan.
 Went to Detroit when he was
16 to be an apprentice to a machinist.
 Married Clara Bryant.
 Owned and operated a sawmill to
support his family.

Creating the Assembly Line
Before the creation of the assembly line,
cars were only available to the rich, and
they still required a chauffer with a
mechanical background to operate.
 Ford wanted to develop a car that was
cheap, easy to make, and reliable for all
Americans.

 This lead to his invention of the Model T and
the assembly line.
Primary Source - Developing the Model T

The Ford Motor Company manufactured its first car - the Model A - in 1903. By 1906,
the Model N was in production but Ford had not yet achieved his goal of producing a
simple, affordable car. He would accomplish this with the Model T. Charles Sorensen who had joined Henry Ford two years earlier - describes how Ford had him set up a
secret room where design of the new car would be carried out:

"Early one morning in the winter of 1906-7, Henry Ford
dropped in at the pattern department of the Piquette Avenue
plant to see me. 'Come with me, Charlie,' he said, 'I want to
show you something.'
I followed him to the third floor and its north end, which was
not fully occupied for assembly work. He looked about and
said, 'Charlie, I'd like to have a room finished off right here in
this space. Put up a wall with a door in big enough to run a
car in and out. Get a good lock for the door, and when you're
ready, we'll have Joe Galamb come up in here. We're going
to start a completely new job.'
The room he had in mind became the maternity ward for
Model T.
Creating the Assembly Line
In 1908, Ford developed the Model T.
Ford used the profits to sell the car for less
and so sales sky-rocketed.
 By 1918, half of the
cars being driven were
Model Ts.
 When the Model T
became
so popular, Ford had
to develop a faster
more effective way
of creating the car.


Creating the Assembly Line
Because of the Model T’s design and its
simple replaceable parts it could be
more rapidly assembled.
 This lead to Ford’s idea for the assembly
line, where a car passed though each
station and a new part was assembled.
 Assembly time went from 12.5 hours to
6 hours.
 This made the car cheaper and more
available to everyone.

American Consumers
As the car became cheaper and more
reliable, cars became more common
and were owned by many Americans.
 As more Americans owned cars, they
began to travel and go further places
because the could.
 Because so many Americans were now
traveling, there became a need for more
roads.

US Highway System
As the car began to catch on with more
and more people a demand for roads and
highways became more popular.
 The federal government became involved
and began funding and building highways.
 This lead to increase of travel and people
went on vacations more often because it
was easier and travel was no longer hard
anymore.
 This opened up the country and Americans
were more easily in reach to each other.
