The Moving Assembly Line: Highland Park, 1913

On October 7, 1913, Ford engineers at Highland Park started pulling chassis down a line with a rope and windlass while stationary workers added parts. Assembly time for a Model T chassis fell from over 12 hours to about 93 minutes within months.

The magic was not speed of hands but gravity of flow: each worker did one thing, the work moved, and output per worker multiplied. Wages doubled with the famous 5 dollar day in 1914, cutting crippling turnover and letting workers buy the cars they built.

The moving assembly line spread from Detroit to every industry on earth, from burgers to airplanes, and Highland Park is where it happened..