1938 Ford Automobile Assembly Line, Chicago Torrence Avenue Plant 1938 Ford (Patreon)

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Silent, with title cards.

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Assembly

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Chicago Assembly (sometimes referred to as Torrence Avenue Assembly) is Ford Motor Company's oldest continually-operated automobile manufacturing plant. It is located at E. 130th Street and Torrence Avenue in the Hegewisch section of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Assembly currently builds the sixth generation Ford Explorer and the second generation Lincoln Aviator...

History

Production started on March 3, 1924, as an alternative production site for the Model T to the River Rouge Plant. It switched to Model A production in 1928, and built M8 Greyhound and M20 Armored Utility Car armored cars during World War II. It was the site of pickup truck production for 40 years before that operation stopped in 1964. In 1985, it was selected as the site of production for the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable midsize sedans.

Ford spent $400,000,000 in 2004 to modernize the plant. It switched to production of D3 platform vehicles for 2005, and to CD6 platform vehicles for 2019. Nine automotive suppliers have built factories nearby at the Ford Chicago Manufacturing Campus developed by CenterPoint Properties. Ford's Chicago plant is a center for flexible just-in-time production. It employs over 4,099 workers...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line

An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a progressive assembly) in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in sequence until the final assembly is produced. By mechanically moving the parts to the assembly work and moving the semi-finished assembly from work station to work station, a finished product can be assembled faster and with less labor than by having workers carry parts to a stationary piece for assembly.

Assembly lines are common methods of assembling complex items such as automobiles and other transportation equipment, household appliances and electronic goods.

Workers in charge of the works of assembly line are called assemblers...

At Ford Motor Company, the assembly line was introduced by William "Pa" Klann upon his return from visiting Swift & Company's slaughterhouse in Chicago and viewing what was referred to as the "disassembly line", where carcasses were butchered as they moved along a conveyor. The efficiency of one person removing the same piece over and over without himself moving caught his attention. He reported the idea to Peter E. Martin, soon to be head of Ford production, who was doubtful at the time but encouraged him to proceed. Others at Ford have claimed to have put the idea forth to Henry Ford, but Pa Klann's slaughterhouse revelation is well documented in the archives at the Henry Ford Museum and elsewhere, making him an important contributor to the modern automated assembly line concept. Ford was appreciative, having visited the highly automated 40-acre Sears mail order handling facility around 1906. At Ford, the process was an evolution by trial and error of a team consisting primarily of Peter E. Martin, the factory superintendent; Charles E. Sorensen, Martin's assistant; Clarence W. Avery; C. Harold Wills, draftsman and toolmaker; Charles Ebender; and József Galamb. Some of the groundwork for such development had recently been laid by the intelligent layout of machine tool placement that Walter Flanders had been doing at Ford up to 1908.

The moving assembly line was developed for the Ford Model T and began operation on October 7, 1913, at the Highland Park Ford Plant, and continued to evolve after that, using time and motion study. The assembly line, driven by conveyor belts, reduced production time for a Model T to just 93 minutes by dividing the process into 45 steps. Producing cars quicker than paint of the day could dry, it had an immense influence on the world...