The Myth of the Line: Ford's Production of the Model T at Highland Park, 1909–16

Abstract

This article questions the myth that the moving assembly line was Ford's key productive innovation before 1918. It begins by analysing Hounshell and Lewchuk's recent historiographic accounts of Ford. The article then refutes the myth of the line by demonstrating that the myth cannot be reconciled with Ford Archive evidence on the chronology of productivity growth and the composition of costs. A concluding section sets the moving assembly line in historical perspective by reinterpreting Ford's achievement as the realisation of flow in repetitive manufacturing.