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Henry Ford and the Assembly Line
It was on this day in history, December 1, 1913, that Henry Ford introduced us to the mass production of the American automobile. Ford installed the first moving assembly line that succeeded in mass producing all the parts necessary to make a complete car. His inspiration was modeled after the continuous-flow methods that were used in the production of flour, beer, canned goods and also seen in Chicago’s meat-packing plants. However, the concept had its origin several hundred years prior in Venice’s ship building industry, where they used pre-made parts and an assembly line. The Venice Arsenal factory managed to produce nearly a ship a day! It is the first…