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The Moving Assembly Line Turns 100 (2013)
This month marks the official celebration of the world’s first moving assembly line. On Oct. 7, 1913, 140 assemblers stationed along a 150-foot chassis line at a Ford Motor Co. plant just north of Detroit stood in place as the work came to them.
According to historian Douglas Brinkley, “the [assembly line] process grew like a vine and eventually spread to all phases of the manufacture of Ford cars, and then through the entire world of heavy industry.” In his autobiography, My Life and Work(CRC Press), Ford claims that the “overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef” served as a model for flow production at the Highland Park plant. “Everywhere in Highland Park by the end of 1914 continuous motion was the rule; a kinetic spirit pulsed through the plant; its circulatory system was as elaborate and vital as that of the human body,” notes Nevins.
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