Working at Ford’s Factory in the 1910s

To reduce costs and increase production of his most successful automobile — the Model T — Henry Ford borrowed a tactic from the meatpacking industry and implemented the assembly line in his manufacturing plant. It would revolutionize the auto industry as would Ford’s groundbreaking Five Dollar Day wage for an eight-hour shift.

Within two years of its incorporation in 1903 the Ford Motor Company was producing 25 cars a day. Prior to the introduction of the assembly line, the record time for building one car stood at 12 hours and 13 minutes.

In 1913 Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to help reduce the cost of the already popular Model T. Instead of working on a variety of tasks to build one car, each worker remained in the same spot and performed one task for his entire shift. Here, men make gas tanks.

Under the new assembly line system, it took 1 hour and 33 minutes to produce a car, allowing Ford to produce 1,000 cars a day. In this picture, men work on dashboards ca. 1918.

In decreasing the cost of production, Ford was able to achieve one of his dreams -- making cars more affordable for the average middle-class American.

Despite the success that the assembly line brought to the company, many skilled workers found the work monotonous and exhausting. Pictured here are workers in the tool and die department in the pressed-steel building at the River Rouge plant.

Turnover was so high, company managers had to hire 10 men for every one they wanted to add to the work force.

To reduce turnover and increase business, Henry Ford introduced the $5 Dollar Day in 1914, increasing wages per day by nearly $3. The morning following the announcement, 10,000 men showed up at the factory eager for a job.

Henry Ford required his immigrant workers to attend the company’s English Language School.

Graduates of the English Language School would participate in “The Pageant of the Ford Melting Pot.” Workers arrived wearing traditional clothes from their homeland and would exit the paper mache melting pot wearing a suit, a straw hat, and waving an American flag.

(via PBS)