Assembly Line
In the early stages of Ford's company, his cars were much to expensive and only the very wealthy could afford one. Henry's problem was that he needed to make his car more less costly, so that the working class family could afford one. The idea of the assembly line was to create a fast and efficient way to manufacture cars. Workers would have to add a single peice to the car at a time. This is called division labour. Workers would add the same piece to the car as it moved along a conveyor belt, as oppose to a group of men all working on one car at once. At the end of the assembly line the cars would be ready to drive. This famous assembly line of Henry Fords increased production speed and built the famous Model T. This idea of the changed the way all products were produced, and is still in use to this day.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
- Assembly using relatively less skilled labor.
- much lower cost in mass production
Disadvantages:
- large capital requirement
- long time to get set up
- not suited to custom parts or frequent design changes.
- Assembly using relatively less skilled labor.
- much lower cost in mass production
Disadvantages:
- large capital requirement
- long time to get set up
- not suited to custom parts or frequent design changes.