subject: Automobile Manufacturing [print this page] Almost from the start, the manufacturing of automobiles introduced methods that had never been seen before. These methods have come to be called "mass production" and "assembly-line production." R. E. Olds and Henry Ford were the pioneers. They saw that automobiles could be made cheaper if they could be turned out in great quantities. Ford really saw his dream come true, with more than a million cars a year coming from his factories every year. Olds was not quite so successful. "Mass production" means that every part of the automobile is manufactured in great quantities, and that a part made for one car will fit equally well into any other car. This principle was known as early as the Revolutionary War, more than a hundred years before the automobile became a reality, but it took the automobile to show how good it was. Today, nearly every big factory uses mass-production methods. An "assembly line" is a moving belt that carries the thing to be made from one worker to another. Every workman has exactly one job to do-to put on a bumper or a steering wheel, paint a door or a fender, screw on one part or one bolt. At the end of the belt, a finished product drops off. The automobile industry has become the key to prosperity in the United States, and is rapidly becoming the same in other countries. It employs the most people, uses the most steel and glass and rubber and dozens of other products. It has made the United States "a nation on wheels," a country where the speed and comfort of the automobile gave every citizen a fuller and happier life. The mechanical construction of an automobile is explained in a separate article on motor vehicles.
Automobile Manufacturing
By: David Bunch
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
