The Assembly Line and Henry Ford

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The Assembly Line and Henry Ford

The topic selected involves Henry Ford along with his improvement to the human way of life. The improvement that I refer to is the introduction of the assembly production line. It was the invention of the assembly line that gave people of today the luxuries they have.

The subject of Ford and the assembly line intrigues me because I have a fascination for history. For me, history is a part of all of us, who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. Unfortunately I have no prior knowledge of the subject but hope to learn about the way the assembly line changed production forever.

In the early 1900's the automobiles that were built took a long time to complete. The process that was used was very time consuming. Completion took several hours and workers were paid very little. When Ford introduced the assembly line his workers produced an automobile every couple of minutes rather than hours. With the high rate of production he lowered the price of his vehicles. The increased sales meant he paid his employees more per day and offered benefits. A few benefits Ford offered were health insurance, a higher salary than the competition, and even a five-day workweek. With all the extra incentives Ford gave, he still climbed to success. Maybe it was the fact that an automobile could be bought for the low price of only $850.00 rather than the competitions automobiles for $5000.00.

The assembly line of today consists of a motor driven belt system and a lot of machines. With all the parts moving to the workers, production goes very quickly. Each employee has a specific job. So basically, one person would put a tire on, then the next person in line would install the lug nuts to hold the wheel in place.

A sources I have found very useful has been a periodical from Forbes Magazine. Another useful source has been the Internet. I found a site that is from the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. Another site I found is from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. It focuses more on the assembly line rather than Ford himself. The encyclopedia from "Compton's Interactive CD-ROM" focuses on Ford and the assembly line rather than singling one out. Yet even another site focuses on the history of the city of Detroit.

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