As today marks the 100th anniversary of the moving assembly line invented by
Ford Motor Company F under the leadership of Henry Ford, the company is building
on its legacy of innovation by expanding advanced manufacturing capabilities
and introducing groundbreaking technologies that could revolutionize mass
production for decades to come.
Ford is rapidly expanding its advanced manufacturing capabilities and boosting
global production to meet surging consumer demand. By 2017, Ford will increase
its global flexible manufacturing to produce on average four different models
at each plant around the world to allow for greater adaptability based on
varying customer demand. Ford also projects 90 percent of its plants around
the world will be running on a three-shift or crew model by 2017, which will
help increase production time more than 30 percent.
"One hundred years ago, my great-grandfather had a vision to build safe and
efficient transportation for everyone," said Ford Executive Chairman Bill
Ford. "I am proud he was able to bring the freedom of mobility to millions by
making cars affordable to families and that his vision of serving people still
drives everything we do today."
Also in 2017, virtually all Ford vehicles will be built off nine core
platforms, boosting manufacturing efficiency, while giving customers the
features, fuel efficiency and technology they want anywhere in the world.
Today, Ford builds vehicles on 15 platforms and has the freshest lineup in the
industry.
"Henry Ford's core principles of quality parts, workflow, division of labor
and efficiency still resonate today," said John Fleming, Ford executive vice
president of global manufacturing. "Building on that tradition, we're
accelerating our efforts to standardize production, make factories more
flexible and introduce advanced technologies to efficiently build the best
vehicles possible at the best value for our customers no matter where they
live."
Ford's recent expansions in global manufacturing and production have helped to
retain 130,000 hourly and salaried jobs around the world.
They also put the company on pace to produce 6 million vehicles in 2013 –
approximately 16 vehicles every 60 seconds around the world. By 2015, Ford
will have opened the facilities below:
o 2014: Camacari Engine Plant –
o 2011: Ford Sollers Elabuga Assembly Brazil
Plant – Russia o 2014: Chongqing #3 Assembly Plant
o 2012: Ford Sollers Naberezhnye – China
Chelny Assembly Plant – Russia o 2014: Chongqing Transmission –
o 2012: Chongqing #2 Assembly Plant – China
China o 2014: Sanand Assembly Plant –
o 2012: Craiova Engine Plant – Romania India
o 2012: Ford Thailand Motors – o 2014: Sanand Engine Plant –
Thailand India
o 2013: Chongqing Engine Plant – China o 2015: Hangzhou Assembly – China
o 2013: Nanchang Assembly – China o 2015: Ford Sollers Elabuga Engine
Plant – Russia
An innovation that changed the world
One hundred years ago today, Henry Ford and his team at Highland Park assembly
plant launched the world's greatest contribution to manufacturing – the first
moving assembly line. It simplified assembly of the Ford Model T's 3,000 parts
by breaking it into 84 distinct steps performed by groups of workers as a rope
pulled the vehicle chassis down the line.
The new process revolutionized production and dropped the assembly time for a
single vehicle from 12 hours to about 90 minutes.
By reducing the money, time and manpower needed to build cars as he refined
the assembly line over the years, Ford was able to drop the price of the Model
T from $850 to less than $300. For the first time in history, quality vehicles
were affordable to the masses. Eventually, Ford built a Model T every 24
seconds and sold more than 15 million worldwide by 1927, accounting for half
of all automobiles then sold.
"Ford's new approach spread rapidly, not only to other automakers but also to
manufacturers of phonographs, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and other
consumer goods," said Bob Casey, former curator of transportation at The Henry
Ford, and author of The Model T: A Centennial History. "The assembly line
became the characteristic American mode of production."
In 1914, Ford instituted the "$5 workday," a significant wage at the time, to
enable his employees to buy the vehicles they built. The move created loyalty
among Ford workers and is credited with giving rise to a new middle class of
consumers unencumbered by geography, free to travel the open roads, to live
where they please and chase the American dream.
Ford fans today are honoring Henry Ford and his ingenious moving assembly
line. National Geographic Channel will mark the occasion with an in-depth new
documentary as part of its "Ultimate Factories" program airing Friday, Oct.
18. Information about the documentary and local air times can be found here.
For additional information, graphics, images and video on Ford's moving
assembly line, please visit media.ford.com.
New technologies shape the future
Ford already is realizing the benefits of advanced manufacturing technologies
that will shape the future. For example, Ford engineers are developing a
highly flexible, first-of-its-kind, patented technology to rapidly form
sheet-metal parts for low-volume production use. The technology, known as Ford
Freeform Fabrication Technology, or F3T, will lower costs and speed delivery
times for prototype stamping molds – within three business days versus two to
six months for prototypes made using conventional methods.
Additionally, Ford is expanding its capabilities in 3D printing, which creates
production-representative 3D parts layer by layer for testable prototypes.
With 3D printing, Ford can create multiple versions of one part at a time and
deliver prototype parts to engineers for testing in days rather than months.
Ford also is investing in robotic innovations to improve vehicle quality and
production efficiencies. For example, the company's new dirt detection system
uses robotic vision to create a digital model of each vehicle in final
assembly to analyze paint and surface imperfections in comparison with a
perfect model. The result has been significantly improved surface quality on
Ford vehicles and more time for operators on the assembly line to address
complex issues. Robotics, in this case, allow Ford to work smarter in
improving products for customers and allowing workers to focus on more
critical thinking tasks.
Finally, through Ford's "virtual factory," the company can improve quality and
cut costs in real-world manufacturing facilities by creating and analyzing
computer simulations of the complete vehicle production process. This includes
simulations of how assembly line workers have to reach and stretch when
building a vehicle to ensure the work conditions meet Ford ergonomic
standards. Since the implementation of this virtual process in 2001, the
number of ergonomic issues during physical builds has been reduced by nearly
20 percent.
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