Ford Innovated the Assembly Line 100 Years Ago. Now, Ford has a Better IdeaFord Innovated the Assembly Line 100 Years Ago. Now, Ford has a Better Idea

The moving assembly line was the productivity key that launched the Ford Model T to becoming the world’s best-selling car, but now Ford has a new manufacturing plan.

Dan Carney, Senior Editor

September 30, 2021

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A 1923 Model T receives its body on a moving assembly line (left), while a pre-production F-150 Lightning scoots through the plant on an automated guided carrier (right).Ford Motor Co.

In recognition of the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Day 2021, let’s take a look at more than a century of advances in automotive manufacturing at Ford Motor Co.

Ford founder Henry Ford is often popularly credited with inventing the mass production moving assembly line. He didn’t, but the company exploited and popularized this advance in manufacturing efficiency to make the Model T a mass-produced commodity rather than a hand-built luxury.


The slow old way of building cars involved car bodies being delivered by horse-drawn carriage and teams of workers assembling each automobile atop sawhorses. These teams of workers would rotate from one station to another to bring the vehicle together. The logistics of bringing in more parts to complete each car was a headache and late parts delivery caused pile-ups of workers contending for space.

J.J. Seaton wrote in Harper’s Weekly in January 1910 that “the man who can successfully solve this knotty question and produce a car that will be entirely sufficient mechanically, and whose price will be within the reach of millions who cannot yet afford automobiles, will not only grow rich but will be considered a public benefactor.”

Ford studied other industries’ practices, looking at brewing, canning, and steel manufacturing to get ideas on the best way to build cars. On Oct. 7, 1913, Henry Ford became the person to meet Seaton’s challenge, and it marked the beginning of a new era in automotive manufacturing. Ford’s Model T was intended to be a car anyone could afford, but until it was constructed by mass production on a moving assembly line, even this modest car remained beyond the means of most people.

Related:14 Videos That Break Down the Amazing Engineering of the 2022 Ford Lightning

On that first day, Ford’s team rigged a rudimentary final assembly line at the Highland Park Assembly plant. They rigged a rope with a winch that dragged cars along a 150-foot assembly line, where 140 workers swarmed the passing cars to assemble them. This rigged system was replaced by a permanent chain-driven assembly line in 1914.

Worker hours of final assembly dropped from more than 12 hours under the stationary assembly system to fewer than three. By 1924, a Model T required only 1.5 worker hours to complete. As a result, production soared and costs plummeted. In 1912, Ford produced 82,388 Model Ts and the touring car sold for $600. By 1916, Model T production had risen to 585,388, and the price had dropped to $360.

Today, carmakers like Ford are moving away from traditional assembly lines, and to conveyances that are reminiscent of the carts that carried early cars around assembly plants.

Related:80-Amp Ford Charge Station Pro Cuts Lightning Recharge Time by 40 Percent

Corey Williams, plant manager at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant described the new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center plant for the F-150 Lightning. “The [plant’s] interior will look much different than its next-door neighbor, Dearborn Truck Plant,” he said. “There won’t be any conveyors on the plant floor. Instead, automated guided carriers will move the vehicles from workstation to workstation like a well-choreographed ballet.”

These dancing carriers provide greater flexibility than the traditional steel assembly line conveyor systems, Williams explained. “The great thing about this is our flexibility in production. When customer demand goes up, we can flex our production with these automated guided carriers and we don’t have to physically take a conveyance line and move it.”

Ford is spending nearly $1 billion on the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center to create a manufacturing home for the F-150 Lightning. Only time will tell whether this factory’s opening will be a watershed, like installing the moving assembly line in the Highland Park plant was in 1913.

About the Author

Dan Carney

Senior Editor, Design News

Dan’s coverage of the auto industry over three decades has taken him to the racetracks, automotive engineering centers, vehicle simulators, wind tunnels, and crash-test labs of the world.

A member of the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year jury, Dan also contributes car reviews to Popular Science magazine, serves on the International Engine of the Year jury, and has judged the collegiate Formula SAE competition.

Dan is a winner of the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive writing, as well as the National Motorsports Press Association's award for magazine writing and the Washington Automotive Press Association's Golden Quill award.

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He has held a Sports Car Club of America racing license since 1991, is an SCCA National race winner, two-time SCCA Runoffs competitor in Formula F, and an Old Dominion Region Driver of the Year award winner. Co-drove a Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost to 16 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-accredited world speed records over distances from just under 1km to over 4,104km at the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France.

He was also a longtime contributor to the Society of Automotive Engineers' Automotive Engineering International magazine.

He specializes in analyzing technical developments, particularly in the areas of motorsports, efficiency, and safety.

He has been published in The New York Times, NBC News, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post, Hagerty, AutoTrader.com, Maxim, RaceCar Engineering, AutoWeek, Virginia Living, and others.

Dan has authored books on the Honda S2000 and Dodge Viper sports cars and contributed automotive content to the consumer finance book, Fight For Your Money.

He is a member and past president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers

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