December 1, 1913

[HPetrino]

I've read that it was on this date that Ford launched the first moving assembly line, thus reducing the production time for a Model T from 12 hours to 2.5 hours. This, IMHO, was a most significant change that altered a lot more than the time it took to build a car.

[TWrenn]

And kind of changed the world forever.

[DanTreace]

Bit more detail from Ford Methods and The Ford Shops




click on image to enlarge

[Mark Gregush]

This was posted over on the Dodge Clubs Facebook page;
https://automotivehistory.org/this-day- ... mbly-line/
They should have done a little better on research. The main photo look like 1924 or 1925 Canadian assembly line. Note the drivers door and lower swinging glass in windshield.

[OilyBill]

"Ford Methods and the Ford Shops" is a really EXCELLENT book. It is comparable in standing the the Nevins history of the Ford Motor Co. They deal in the most extreme detail on nearly every Ford Model T manufacturing process, for nearly every major assembly. It took them nearly a year to get ALL the assembly lines up and running. One of the best stories is about the front axle assembly line, which Ford though was doing an A-1 job, but after they made the line a moving assembly line, the differences were incredible. He also gives the actual production costs of many of the parts, both before and after the moving assembly line conversions, such as $2.63 for each engine pan they made. Also shows the layouts of the various sub-assembly points in the factory, and has pictures of a lot of the operations that go into them.
The book I got (just last week, after someone here told be about it, and I looked it up on Amazon) was brand new, but like the Ford Service Bulletin book, it is printed in VERY small type, and a lot of the charts and drawings need a magnifying glass to see the details, similarly with the pictures.
As an foundry guy, I have always been a little sad that I have such a high rate of failure with complicated castings (About 25% loss rate.)
But then I read in this book, that even with Ford's tight control over metallurgy, temperatures, pouring procedures, etc. they still had a failure rate of 10% of the castings. They cast 1100 engine blocks to get 1000 good ones, and that was with inspectors and repairmen who looked over and fixed a lot of the engine blocs that had minor problems. The rest went back to the foundry cupola to be re-melted and poured again. So I'm feeling a lot better about that.

[Steve Jelf]

When you buy the disk version of Bruce's encyclopedia, Ford Methods and Shops is one of the several extras that are included.

[DanTreace]

When you buy the disk version of Bruce's encyclopedia, Ford Methods and Shops is one of the several extras that are included.


Screen Shot 2020-12-01 at 9.33.15 PM.png

Agree Completely Steve!

You just can't have a nice screen desktop computer and NOT have the disc version on your machine! Use it all the time, thanks to Barb for offering this last fine complete work of Bruce McCalley. If you want one of these mini USB drives with scads of Model T info, Christmas is coming, have your wife make a present to you by emailing Barb.

gourmetbarbara2 AT (replace AT with '@') verizon.net , only $58.50 post paid USA.



RE: Forging chapter of the Ford Methods screen shot from the USB drive, easy to search the entire contents of that 440 page book!