Making it Move
Ford created the closest thing to the type of mass production we have today. He, like Olds, was using an immobile assembly line, but knew it could be more efficient. He got together with his team and discussed this issue. On December 1, 1913 he made his line move. This cut the time needed to assemble a Model T by 10 hours. Ford's assembly line was efficient not only because it moved, but because there was more than one. Ford's factory had different lines for different tasks. Workers assembled wheels on one, created the cab on another and many more components on other lines that all flowed to the main assembly line. The cab was actually built on a platform above the chassis so that it could simply be lowered onto the main frame. This not only sped up production, but also eliminated the hard task of lifting the cab.