This day in 1914 at the Highland Park Assembly Line

Owen Lucas said:
The ford plant today:

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This thing is massive but I doubt they are still making vehicles inside. Maybe used for storage?
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Was recently watching a "Hidden America" show that featured this plant. It's borderline tear-down, but I think locally they're trying to preserve it as best they can. They were showing around inside it, looks more like a prison than a factory. Lol
 
someonesomewhere said:
Was recently watching a "Hidden America" show that featured this plant. It's borderline tear-down, but I think locally they're trying to preserve it as best they can. They were showing around inside it, looks more like a prison than a factory. Lol
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Ford's Highland Park put America on wheels and changed the world. Prior to that only the very rich could afford a car.
 
Wrenchturner44 said:
"A quick question: who invented the assembly line? If you answered Henry Ford, you would only qualify for partial credit. In fact, the first assembly line was developed by Ransom E. Olds, founder of the Olds Motor Vehicle Company and namesake of the Oldsmobile."
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Chicago's meat packing industry is believed to be one of the first industrial assembly lines (or disassembly lines) to be utilized in the United States starting at the end of the Civil War. Workers would stand at fixed stations and a pulley system would bring the meat to each worker and they would complete a single task.
 
JeffKeryk said:
In 1914 Ford Motor Company greatly improved its assembly line operations by installing an endless chain to pull each chassis along each work center at its Highland Park, Michigan plant.

American ingenuity at its best!
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True. Ford first used the assembly line in 1913 to make magnetos. From there, additional sub-assembly lines were used leading to the "endless" line you described. The first such line used a rope to move the parts along with the chain coming along about a year later.

What's interesting is that now some very high-end cars have moved away (at least in part) from such lines and have stations where one or more workers work on various sub-assemblies. One aspect of Ford's assembly line, heralded by Olds, was that unskilled labor could be used to construct the vehicles. There's now a segment of the industry that's moving back to its origins of using skilled labor to build various parts and assemblies.
 
someonesomewhere said:
Was recently watching a "Hidden America" show that featured this plant. It's borderline tear-down, but I think locally they're trying to preserve it as best they can. They were showing around inside it, looks more like a prison than a factory. Lol
Click to expand...
They did all kind of share a certain similar architecture. Crazy that is was so many floors high!

The real scary one is the Packard factory across town.
 
Just watched ”Ford vs Ferrari” last night. I don’t watch much Tv or anything else for that matter. I enjoyed the movie, it was good.
 
JeffKeryk said:
Ford's Highland Park put America on wheels and changed the world. Prior to that only the very rich could afford a car.
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You should check out the series the Cars that built America and The cars that built the world. Both are excellent. One of the biggest turning points for Henry Ford was when he encouraged investors to come out and watch the race between his car and the Winton motor car. Winton was the fastest vehicle you could buy at the time and I think was $1500-$2000 dollars. The Winton took off and zoomed ahead. After a while it had electrical problems and retired all while the Ford continued on. Henry Ford told investors speed is great but not if you don't get to where you're going. "We need reliable transportation. " I'm seeing these same parallels in electric vehicle start ups. It's faster and more power. How about a fast dense battery. Most people will never use 1500 horsepower.
 
97prizm said:
You should check out the series the Cars that built America and The cars that built the world. Both are excellent. One of the biggest turning points for Henry Ford was when he encouraged investors to come out and watch the race between his car and the Winton motor car. Winton was the fastest vehicle you could buy at the time and I think was $1500-$2000 dollars. The Winton took off and zoomed ahead. After a while it had electrical problems and retired all while the Ford continued on. Henry Ford told investors speed is great but not if you don't get to where you're going. "We need reliable transportation. " I'm seeing these same parallels in electric vehicle start ups. It's faster and more power. How about a fast dense battery. Most people will never use 1500 horsepower.
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EVs are in their infancy and there are a lot of issues and barriers to success. I realize I live in an EV and tech bubble...
I buy Teslas because they took over the shuttered GM-NUMMI plant right up the road. When GM and Toyota left, thousands of good pating jobs were lost and more including support work. The tax base was decimated; homes were lost. When Fremont was being reopened, Musk took out full page ads in the SJ Merc-News encouraging ex-NUMMI worker to apply. It was all over the radio stations as well. Today Fremont employs far more workers than NUMMI ever did. I salute and support this.
A great American car company. Musk idolizes much of what Ford did. You know the new Model 3 refresh is named Highland" after Ford's world changing car factory.
 
Great point and totally agree. the fastest cars I’ve owned have been six seconds to 60, and I’ve not been left wanting anything more. Most of what I’ve driven have been more like 7-9 seconds. 9 is slow, 7-8 fair enough but I always drive those hard. Electrics could dial back a lot and hold 6-7 and that would be fine!
 
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