Oldsmobile Model R | Image Credit: Wikipedia Show
Perhaps one of the most crucial inventions for the realm of business is the assembly line. Expedited manufacturing of goods, materials, and products has completely changed the processes that many businesses utilize to remain relevant in their industries. Assembly lines have allowed manufacturing to speed up exponentially and now offer a lot of automated tasks instead of everything having to be done by hand. This increases productivity and makes processes less laborious for workers. When many people hear the term “assembly line,” they think of Henry Ford inventing the assembly line to manufacture the Model T automobile circa 1910, which was a game changer for Ford and the auto industry as a whole. One Model T vehicle could be built in just 90 minutes, therefore rendering the manufacturer to crank out millions of units annually. Ford was a pioneer in the assembly line creation and will always be known as one of the greatest inventors of his time. Of course, assembly lines are still widely used today, but did you know that Mr. Ford actually was not the founder of them? The concept of the assembly line is believed to have begun around the 14th century, long before the auto industry started using it. The Venetian Arsenal began to produce ships via an assembly line down a canal and found great success with it. The ship being built would make several stops, each of where different parts would be installed. This significantly cut down on the manufacturing time, as an entire ship could be built in just one day. Eli Whitney cotton gin |Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons While still not formally named, assembly lines gained more popularity throughout the Industrial Revolution as the invention of new machines continually progressed. Machines were able to do things that only humans could once do, and inventors began to use them much more. Eli Whitney, most commonly known for creating the cotton gin, came up with the practice of interchangeable parts, which initially became utilized for firearms components. Instead of guns being made by hand, and thus each being unique, interchangeable parts meant standardized parts could be built into the guns and they would therefore be identical. Assembly lines were also used in the mid-1800s, including for meatpacking. While much of the work was still manual, employees would utilize either a pulley system or trollies to cut the meats and move on to the next animal. In a sense, this was more of a disassembly line because the animals would be taken apart, but it was the same concept - utilizing moving parts to get the job completed. These were most widely used in Chicago, Illinois and Cincinnati, Ohio, which were two of the largest meat producers at that time. Many other industries started using technologies to automate and expedite manufacturing processes without formalizing the concept of an assembly line. The production of everything from trains and bicycle transportation to textiles and wristwatches were sped up via things like elevators and simple conveyors. Important devices at that time such as steam engines and boilers were put on production lines, and various inventors started creating useful items for military purposes. Devices such as cranes also started to revolutionize the construction industry. In 1901, Ransom Olds took the assembly line even farther and formally patented it. Statistically, it is believed that this practice increased the amount of Oldsmobile vehicles made per year by a whopping 500 percent. Oldsmobile’s most popular model at that time was the Curved Dash and around 20 of them could be made per day. While they contained simple parts, they could be made quickly and were affordable and attractive. Only after all of this did Henry Ford actually get his time to shine with the assembly line. Ford worked diligently to expand the concept of the assembly line and invented a method of moving parts by what we know would call a conveyor belt. A rope would pull each vehicle in a line to different “stations” where employees would install different parts and components. As mentioned, this allowed one vehicle to be produced in just 90 minutes compared to the 12+ hours it would take before. Even though Oldsmobile patented the assembly line, Ford usually gets the credit for creating the first mass-production assembly line in the auto industry. Henry Ford penned an autobiography in the early 1920’s in which he outlined that the assembly line made working less physically demanding for employees, allowed for pay increases due to increased productivity, and gave employment opportunities for immigrants and uneducated individuals. He also boasted that employees were allowed to work less hours because with the advances in productivity, they would be able to meet quotas in less time. The price of the Model T also dropped drastically and more Americans could afford one. Of course, the assembly line would go on to be expanded upon greatly since his time. General Motors fully entered into the assembly line world around 1960 when it started to build robotic arms that would help expedite manufacturing even more. Around 1970, the Stanford Arm was created, which allowed a six-axis robot to be programmed to move parts in a continuous, timed pattern. General Motors is now one of the biggest technology firms in the world. The assembly line has come with some criticism. Critics believe that the repetitive process of assembly lines can make employees alienated and unsatisfied with their jobs because they don’t get the satisfaction of the feeling that they made the products themselves. Also, since assembly lines have allowed companies to utilize less trained employees, job security is lessened and “cheaper” people can be hired, thus leading to unemployment of highly skilled workers while the company saves money. Regardless, it seems as if the pros of the assembly line have outweighed the cons and it is here to stay.
On December 1, 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33 minutes. Ford’s Model T, introduced in 1908, was simple, sturdy and relatively inexpensive–but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who was determined to build “motor car[s] for the great multitude.” (“When I’m through,” he said, “about everybody will have one.”) In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured, he would just have to find a way to build them more efficiently. Ford had been trying to increase his factories’ productivity for years. The workers who built his Model N cars (the Model T’s predecessor) arranged the parts in a row on the floor, put the under-construction auto on skids and dragged it down the line as they worked. Later, the streamlining process grew more sophisticated. Ford broke the Model T’s assembly into 84 discrete steps, for example, and trained each of his workers to do just one. He also hired motion-study expert Frederick Taylor to make those jobs even more efficient. Meanwhile, he built machines that could stamp out parts automatically (and much more quickly than even the fastest human worker could). The most significant piece of Ford’s efficiency crusade was the assembly line. Inspired by the continuous-flow production methods used by flour mills, breweries, canneries and industrial bakeries, along with the disassembly of animal carcasses in Chicago’s meat-packing plants, Ford installed moving lines for bits and pieces of the manufacturing process: For instance, workers built motors and transmissions on rope-and-pulleypowered conveyor belts. In December 1913, he unveiled the pièce de résistance: the moving-chassis assembly line. In February 1914, he added a mechanized belt that chugged along at a speed of six feet per minute. As the pace accelerated, Ford produced more and more cars, and on June 4, 1924, the 10-millionth Model T rolled off the Highland Park assembly line. Though the Model T did not last much longer—by the middle of the 1920s, customers wanted a car that was inexpensive and had all the bells and whistles that the Model T scorned—it had ushered in the era of the automobile for everyone. READ MORE: The Model T Skip to content
Digital Transformation
The assembly line is one of the great achievements in modern manufacturing. Since the industrial revolution, assembly lines have allowed manufacturers to make goods at an unprecedented pace and scale. In the last 10 years, however, the assembly line itself has undergone something of a revolution. With new digital technologies now commonplace in factories, the assembly line has had to adapt. This post will give a quick history of the assembly line, and describe how new technologies are transforming one of the What is an assembly line?Assembly lines are manufacturing systems in which work-in-progress moves from station to station in a sequential fashion. At each workstation, new parts are added or new assemblies take place, resulting in a finished product at the end. Assembly lines are manufacturing systems in which work-in-progress moves from station to station in a sequential fashion.
Assembly expedited the entire manufacturing process by conveying semi-finished products from process to process. This was a massive improvement to previous methods, in which complex production routing and disconnected processes added complexity to assemblies. Further, assembly lines enabled workers to develop process-specific expertise that helped full lines work more efficiently. As a result, manufacturers could finish complex products like cars, aircraft, and industrial machines at a greater rate with more precision than ever before. A short history of the assembly lineSo how did we get here? Here’s a quick history of the assembly line. Manufacturing before the Assembly LineWhile some form of assembly lines have existed for thousands of years, it was only in the last 100 that they became a mainstay in factories. It helps to understand how manufacturing processes were designed before the assembly line. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, objects were often manufactured from end-to-end by single artisans. If a given assembly required 20 parts and 30 steps to manufacture, a single individual would work through the assembly in order, until they produced a finished product. How did assembly lines make mass production possible?With the industrial revolution, manufacturers began to place operators on specialized tasks. So rather than complete a single object, they would specialize in a single process–for example, cutting, lathing, or a particular manual assembly. By the early 20th century, all of the parts were in place for the modern assembly line to emerge. With the advent of interchangeable parts, electric conveyor belts, and new types of machining processes, assembly lines were poised to make the world. Henry Ford and the Automotive Assembly LineThe automotive plant is the first thing many people think of when they hear “assembly line.” Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company is often credited with inventing the assembly line. There’s some dispute, however, as to whether or not Henry Ford invented the automotive assembly line. An Early Automotive Assembly Line
In reality, many manufacturers were experimenting with assembly line systems in the 20th century. Indeed, Ransom Olds–an early innovator in the automotive industry–is credited with inventing the first automotive assembly line system. The consensus among historians seems to be that while Ford wasn’t first, he did do more to advance the assembly line than his contemporaries. Ford set ambitious production goals, set faster production rates than his peers, and made a science of assembly line design and line balancing. On Ford’s assembly lines, an empty chassis became a complete car in a matter of hours, not days. This precedent was quickly imitated and improved by competitors, leading to a rapid evolution in manufacturing processes. By mid-century, millions of cars rolled off Ford assembly lines, paving the way for America’s auto-first transportation culture. Assembly Lines Spread to Other IndustriesSoon, the optimized assembly spread to other industries. By mid-century, assembly lines were present in industries beyond discrete manufacturing, including chemicals, oil, and other continuous manufacturing industries. At present, the assembly line–or at least a more sophisticated iteration of it–is a fixture in manufacturing across industries and product specializations. Evolution of the assembly line with automationWhile assembly lines made some manufacturing processes significantly more efficient, some manufacturers looked for new ways to improve accuracy and lower costs. Thus, as various forms of automation matured over the course of the 20th century, manufacturers incorporated them into their processes. Gradually, automated tools began to take over simple, repetitive tasks. Over time, the amount of automation on assembly lines increased significantly. While there are examples of fully automated assembly lines, most assembly lines are mixes of humans and automated labor. Humans perform the assemblies and tasks that are too sensitive or complex for machines, while machines do the work that’s too repetitive, dangerous, or error-prone for humans. The Legacy of the Assembly LineSo what did the assembly line make possible?
Future of the assembly lineJust as the invention of steam power instigated an industrial revolution in the 18th century, digital technologies are sparking a new industrial revolution today. While it’s tempting to imagine the future of the assembly line as a fully automated endeavor, the reality is a little more complex. The biggest advances in assembly line production will come less from automation and more from increased visibility into industrial processes. Indeed, modern assembly lines are close collaborations between humans and machines, coordinated by applications, not unlike those you find on your smartphone. A modern assembly line with digital technology
With IIoT, big data, computer vision, and other Industry 4.0 technologies, assembly lines continue to feature some of the most advanced technology on the planet. Features of the Modern Assembly LineHere are some ways that the modern assembly line differs from Ford’s. Data CollectionIn the modern assembly line, new kinds of sensors and IIoT devices collect data from humans and machines in real time. CollaborativeThanks to advanced robotics, collaborative automation, and more sophisticated software, humans work more intimately with machines on assembly lines than ever before. Less LinearSome assembly lines are less linear than their predecessors. Instead, work is routed dynamically between different lines and cells as necessary. High-Mix ProductsWith high demand for customization and more advanced error-proofing technology, modern assembly lines can produce hundreds of variants of a single product. |