Origins of Mass Production

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Origins of Mass Production

• USA Based

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• Fords Model T was his twentieth design over a
  five year period that began with the original
  Model A in 1903.

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• Model T achieved two objectives designed for
  manufacture and user friendly.

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• Key to mass production was not the moving
  assembly line myth belief then and now.
• It was the complete and consistent
  interchangeability of parts and the simplicity of
  attaching them to each other.

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• To achieve interchangeability Ford insisted that
  the same gauging system be used for every part at
  all times throughout the entire manufacturing
  process.

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• Four cylinder engine block was cast as one piece,
  compared to competitors that cast four individual
  cylinders and bolted them together.

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• Ford began in 1903 with individual stands on
  which a whole car was built often by one
  individual.
• In 1908 on the eve of Model T introduction an
  assemblers task cycle was on average 514 minutes
  of 8.56 hours.

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• Ford first step in efficiency was to deliver the
  parts to the work stations so workers could
  remain in the same spot all day.

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• By 1913 a new plant in Highland Park was coming
  online to meet production demands and Ford
  recognized the problem of workers moving from
  assembly stand to assembly stand if only a yard
  or two it still took time.

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• Fords genius was the introduction of the moving
  assembly line which brought the car past the
  stationary worker and reduced cycle time from 2.3
  minutes to 1.19 minutes.

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• This innovation was new and highly visible and
  caused people to notice and falsely give credit
  to this invention as the Holy Grail of faster
  assembly times, when in fact it was the perfect
  interchangeability and division of labor that
  provided the most dramatic time savings.

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• Fords discovery simultaneously reduced the human
  effort needed to assemble and automobile and
  provided cost savings with each additional
  vehicle made. The more vehicles produced the
  lower the cost for each one.

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• From the 1908 beginnings of production until peak
  numbers of two million a year in the early 1920s
  Ford steadily reduced the retail price of his car
  by two thirds.

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• Early Ford dealership (supply chain retailer)

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• To prevent labor problems Ford instituted the 8
  hour workday and 5 a day pay

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• It worked

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• In a sellers market mass production is logical

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Ford sales in 2005
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• Mass production or ???
• What else is there?

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• It is not necessary to change. Survival is not
  mandatory.
• W. Edwards Deming