FREE ESSAY ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE

THE ASSEMBLY LINE

The topic selected involves Henry Ford along with his improvement to the human way of
life. The improvement that I refer to is the introduction of the assembly production
line. It was the invention of the assembly line that gave people of today the luxuries
they have.
The subject of Ford and the assembly line intrigues me because I have a fascination for
history. For me, history is a part of all of us, who we are, where we have been, and
where we are going. Unfortunately I have no prior knowledge of the subject but hope to
learn about the way the assembly line changed production forever.
In the early 1900's the automobiles that were built took a long time to complete. The
process that was used was very time consuming. Completion took several hours and workers
were paid very little. When Ford introduced the assembly line his workers produced an
automobile every couple of minutes rather than hours. With the high rate of production he
lowered the price of his vehicles. The increased sales meant he paid his employees more
per day and offered benefits. A few benefits Ford offered were health insurance, a higher
salary than the competition, and even a five-day workweek. With all the extra incentives
Ford gave, he still climbed to success. Maybe it was the fact that an automobile could be
bought for the low price of only $850.00 rather than the competitions automobiles for
$5000.00. 
The assembly line of today consists of a motor driven belt system and a lot of machines.
With all the parts moving to the workers, production goes very quickly. Each employee has
a specific job. So basically, one person would put a tire on, then the next person in
line would install the lug nuts to hold the wheel in place.
A sources I have found very useful has been a periodical from Forbes Magazine. Another
useful source has been the Internet. I found a site that is from the Henry Ford Museum in
Detroit, Michigan. Another site I found is from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
MIT. It focuses more on the assembly line rather than Ford himself. The encyclopedia from
Compton's Interactive CD-ROM focuses on Ford and the assembly line rather than singling
one out. Yet even another site focuses on the history of the city of Detroit. 
Future sources will include a few more Internet sites as well as a book that I have not
found yet. I hope that more research will lead me in the right direction in finding the
book that will benefit this research the most. 
Conclusions that I hope to make with this research are that Ford did indeed revolutionize
production and life. Also with this project I hope to understand a little bit more of
what the world really does owe the man that has helped us all, Henry Ford.