|
“Have the opportunity to see what it was
like to assemble a car during 1909-1927.
Visitors can help to assemble the firewall
and coil box on an actual early Model T!”
(Children will need adult to help.)
Directions on what you will be doing
at the Detroit Science Center click HERE
PRESENTED BY:
THE FORD PIQUETTE AVENUE PLANT
461 PIQUETTE AVENUE
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48202-3547
313-872-8759 Website click HERE
It may be difficult for us to believe today but there was a time when automobiles were
produced without an assembly line.
During this pioneering era, virtually all automobiles were assembled with
“Station Assembly” method. The Station Assembly method involved small teams of
workers who built the cars in one place or “station”.
While the Station Assembly method could produce a quality automobile, it
was a very laborious process and sorely lacked efficiency. The Station Assembly
method required approximately 12 to 15 groups of “assemblers” and many more
“pushers” and “shovers” whose job it was to move parts back and forth as needed.
These pushers and shovers were often slow to deliver parts. Assemblers moving
from one station to the next could cause bottlenecks. Faster assemblers frequently
overtook slower assemblers who had not yet completed their specific tasks. Initially,
the parts were not fully interchangeable. Frequently “fitters” would have to file or
modify parts for a proper fit. Altogether, these problems affected assembly time and
ultimately the cost of the finished automobile.
By 1906, interchangeable parts were developed and first used on the Ford Model N
which permitted Ford to minimize the use of the skilled fitters. The assemblers
became experts at their specific task which meant they could perform that task faster.
Workers learned to arrange tools as needed and the flow of parts was streamlined.
Station Assembly eventually morphed into “Sequential Assembly” where the workers
would walk along a row of stations performing their specific task on one car after another.
From 1904 to 1908, the entire automobile business was looking for new ways to
increase production and creative minds at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant were hard
at work.
In July of 1908, Assistant Production Chief Charles E., Sorensen, began to realize
that it was actually easier to assemble a car handling the parts that had to be
brought to the individual stations. Sorensen asked Charles Lewis to layout parts
on the floor so that a chassis would move past the parts as needed for the proper
sequence of assembly. A car frame on skis was hitched to a towrope and the
frame was pulled along the line as a test.
The idea worked brilliantly! From this moment forth, the world of automobile
manufacturing would never be the same.
By August 1913, the task cycle for the average Ford assembler had been reduced
from 514 to 2.3 minutes. The first Ford Model T emerged from the Ford Piquette
Avenue Plant on September 27, 1908, over the next 18 plus years more than 15
million Ford Model T’s were sold around the world making it one of the most
successful automobiles in history.
From Station Assembly, to Sequential Assembly, and finally the Assembly Line,
the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is the home to where the moving assembly line
concept was developed over 106 years ago.
BACK TO EVENTS>>
|
