Ford reduced the Model T’s assembly time to about 93 minutes at its Highland Park plant. The achievement resulted from applying moving-line production and dividing assembly into specialized tasks.
Before the moving assembly line, workers often built much more of a vehicle in one place. Ford’s manufacturing experiments progressively reorganized the process so that parts and partially completed cars moved past workers. In 1913, Highland Park became the setting for the first moving assembly line used for automobile production, dramatically increasing output.
The frequently quoted 93-minute figure refers to the time needed to assemble a Model T on the advanced production line, not the entire time required to manufacture every component from raw materials. Ford’s system depended on standardized parts, interchangeable components, and a carefully timed flow of work.
The change helped lower the Model T’s price and made automobile ownership accessible to a much larger public. It also became a model for industrial mass production worldwide.