America 250: How Henry Ford’s assembly line transformed manufacturing

Before automobiles rolled off assembly lines by the thousands, they were rare, expensive machines built by hand and out of reach for most Americans.

That began to change in the early 20th century.

Oldsmobile introduced an early assembly-line process in 1901. But Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co., transformed the concept into a system that would redefine manufacturing and reshape American life.

WWJ Detroit automotive reporter Jeff Gilbert has covered the auto industry for 45 years.

“The automobile was something really special. It was hand-built, and only wealthy people could own it,” Gilbert said. “What Ford did was bring automobiles to the masses.”

Ford did not invent the assembly line. He refined it.

“Henry Ford looked at how watches were made and said, ‘I can translate that into automobiles,’” Gilbert said. “If you go back to the 1980s, people who wanted to spend a lot of money on a hobby had a computer. Now, if you include your phone and tablet, you might have four or five devices in your home. That’s what happened in the early 20th century with the automobile and with the companies that followed Ford’s lead.”

Ford had been working in the auto industry since his 20s. In 1903, he founded Ford Motor Co.

A decade later came the breakthrough.

On Oct. 7, 1913, the first mass-produced Model T rolled off the assembly line at Ford’s Highland Park plant in Michigan.

Using continuously moving conveyor belts, Ford cut the time required to build a car to about 93 minutes, dividing production into 45 steps.

Cars could be built faster. Quality improved. Designs became standardized.

Ford summed up the efficiency of the process with a famous line: “Any customer can have a car painted any color he wants, so long as it is black.” Black paint dried faster, helping speed production.

By 1918, the Model T accounted for about half of all cars in the United States.

But the impact of the assembly line extended far beyond the factory floor.

Ford introduced higher wages, shorter workdays, bonus pay for overnight shifts and a five-day workweek — changes that helped workers become customers.

“Not only were vehicles less expensive, but workers earned enough to afford them — and it made Henry Ford very wealthy in the process,” Gilbert said.

Before mass production, a new car in 1908 cost about $825. By 1925, the price of a Model T had dropped to $260.

Gilbert said the parallels to today’s tech industry are striking.

“Henry Ford had his quirks,” he said. “And like a lot of people today in tech, you can be a genius in one area and think you’re a genius in another.”

More than a century later, the assembly line continues to evolve.

“Ford’s assembly line is still used today, but in the 1960s and ’70s, Toyota studied it and improved it,” Gilbert said. “Today’s manufacturing combines Ford’s assembly line with Toyota’s just-in-time system. And with artificial intelligence and new technologies, you’re going to see even more improvements in the years ahead.”

From factory floors in Detroit to high-tech production lines around the world, the system Ford refined more than a century ago remains the backbone of modern manufacturing a breakthrough that transformed not only how products are made, but who can afford them.