This is the 100th anniversary of Ford's moving assembly line. The Highland Park, Michigan facility opened October 7, 1913 and one week later a Model T rolled off the line.
The Model T had been in production for five years, but the cost-savings that came from the moving line made it "affordable for the masses." The moving line reduced the time it took to a Model T together down from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes.
I remember visiting the "Rouge plant" as a kid. This was an amazing, huge manufacturing facility. Iron ore would come in on ships at one end:
They would make the steel, roll it out, right there in the complex.
Inside the complex was almost everything needed to make the parts and tools used to make the cars -- and assemble the cars.
[fve]http://youtu.be/Xa0PAg7FfMk[/fve]
