The Moving Assembly Line
One of Henry's main goals was making a car that could be cheaply distributed to the multitudes of people. To do this, he began by taking out all extravagances and options, including the paint job, which had to be black. The cost of the first Model T was $850, which was relatively cheap, but enough for the masses. In 1910, he built a new plant in Highland Park, Michigan, to increase production. It was here that he would put into practice production methods he observed to create the ability to mass produce his automobiles. He used conveyor belts and gravity slides to speed up the process of creating each car. By 1913, the first large-scale assembly line was officially in working order, a milestone in the development of mass production and industrialization. Production time went down to just 93 minutes a car and Ford was able to reduce the price to $260 by 1924. This was cheap enough that the average man could buy it, and eventually it led to half of all cars in America being Model T's in 1918.
The legacy in this is the spread of the moving assembly to other industries, thus making widespread mass production possible. This method of production was used in food production, war weapons, and everything that the moving assembly line applied to. In fact, Henry Ford is partially credited for helping America win WWI by revolutionizing mass production, helping the US to use his techniques to produce massive amounts of weapons and war materials to pour into WWI. It also led to Ford's legacy being able to expand, because the moving assembly line allowed for millions of cars, cheaper prices, and higher wages.
The legacy in this is the spread of the moving assembly to other industries, thus making widespread mass production possible. This method of production was used in food production, war weapons, and everything that the moving assembly line applied to. In fact, Henry Ford is partially credited for helping America win WWI by revolutionizing mass production, helping the US to use his techniques to produce massive amounts of weapons and war materials to pour into WWI. It also led to Ford's legacy being able to expand, because the moving assembly line allowed for millions of cars, cheaper prices, and higher wages.