News Column  Ford Motor and the Moving Assembly Line  October 7,
2013  Virginian - Pilot  Oct. 6 -- On this day, 100 years ago,
Henry Ford and a hand-picked team of industrial engineers rigged
a rudimentary final assembly line at the Highland Park Assembly
plant, where the popular Model T automobile had been built since
its launch in 1908. The team constructed a crude system along an
open space at the plant with a winch and a rope stretched across
the floor.  On this day, 140 assemblers were stationed along a
150-foot line, and they installed parts on the chassis as it was
dragged across the floor by the winch. Man-hours of final
assembly dropped from 12 hours and 30 minutes to five hours and
50 minutes. Soon the line was improved with a power-drive
"endless" conveyor system that was flush with the floor and wide
enough to accommodate the chassis, with room for workers on both
sides.  By 1914, continuous improvement had whittled the time
required for assembly to 93 minutes. This, along with other new
ideas fr