Ford Model T — Mass Production Changes the World

On October 1, 1908, the Ford Model T rolls off the Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit at a price of $850. Thanks to the moving assembly line (December 1, 1913), assembly time drops from 12 h 28 min to 1 h 33 min, and the price falls to $260 by 1925 — inventing mass production.

Discovery

Parameter	Value
Launch	October 1, 1908
Designer	Henry Ford (1863–1947)
Production site	Piquette Avenue plant, then Highland Park (1910), then River Rouge (1927)
Engine	4-cylinder inline, 2,896 cm³, 20 hp (15 kW)
Transmission	2-speed planetary + reverse, pedal-operated
Top speed	~72 km/h
Weight	540 kg
Initial price	$850 (1908) → $260 (1925)
Total production	15,007,034 units (1908–1927)

Technical Explanation

1. Parts standardization — Ford mandates manufacturing tolerances of 0.08 mm (1/320") on all parts. Every bolt, every hub fits any vehicle in the series. This absolute interchangeability (pioneered by Eli Whitney with muskets in 1798) is the prerequisite for assembly-line production.

2. Moving assembly line (December 1, 1913) — Highland Park introduces a continuous 45 m conveyor. Workers remain stationary while the chassis moves from station to station. Final assembly is broken into 84 distinct operations, each lasting about 1 minute 7 seconds. Total chassis assembly time drops from 12 h 28 min to 1 h 33 min — an 8× productivity gain.

3. Economies of scale and price reduction — Ford applies a virtuous-loop logic: increase production → reduce unit cost → lower the price → increase demand → increase production. From 10,000 cars/year in 1909 to 2 million/year by 1923. The price falls from $850 to$ 260 (÷ 3.3).

**4. The $5/day wage (January 5, 1914)** — Ford doubles the minimum wage to$ 5/day (8 hours) when the norm was $2.34/day (9 hours). This is not philanthropy: employee turnover was 370%/year. The$ 5 wage reduces turnover to 16% and creates a working class capable of buying the very car it builds.

Why It Worked

Ford was not looking for the best car but the most accessible. The Model T is deliberately simple: a single model, a single chassis, a special steel (vanadium steel, stronger and lighter, produced in the United States) and a design optimized for manufacturing, not for comfort. The famous line "any color, so long as it's black" (applied from 1914 onward) stems from the fact that Japan Black paint dried faster than any other color, speeding the line by 2 hours.

The combination of standardization + moving line + economies of scale was so effective that by 1921, Ford held 56% of the American automobile market. The model was only discontinued in 1927, when General Motors imposed differentiation through annual model changes.

Causal Chain

Whitney's interchangeable parts (1798) → Chain-processing at Cincinnati slaughterhouses (1870s) → Ford standardizes the Model T (1908) → Moving assembly line at Highland Park (1913) → $5/day wage (1914) → Birth of mass consumerism → General Motors introduces product differentiation (1920s) → Toyota reinvents lean production (1950s)

Anecdote

While attending an automobile race in Florida in 1905, Ford picked up a valve fragment from a wrecked French car. He sent the sample for analysis: the steel contained 0.18% vanadium and was 3 times stronger than standard carbon steel. Ford contracted with an existing third-party steel mill, the United Steel Company of Canton (Ohio), to produce it — the Model T was the first mass-produced vehicle in the world built with vanadium steel.

Sources

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