Rethinking the assembly line: Organisation, performance and productivity in Ford Motor Company, c. 1908–27

Abstract

Previous assessments of Ford's assembly line have been based on a limited set of highly aggregated data. New, more detailed and extensive data allows a reconsideration of Ford's operations and their effectiveness to confirm more fully some earlier understandings through extending the analyses to show the line's impact over a longer period and with more detail about its operational and organisational effects. The reconsideration also challenges some earlier ideas to show that the line was intensively exploited to yield productivity improvements, and that it was not so rigidly used as previously thought.

Keywords:

• Ford
• assembly line
• production
• productivity
• management

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Carnegie Trust and the Centre for Business History, Glasgow University. We would like to thank William Lefebvre, Reuther Library for his assistance; and the Benson Ford Research Centre and the archivists of the Ford Motor Company for granting access to their records.

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