Original Ford Motor Assembly Plant Video

[jdandy]

This is an interesting video of Model T Fords being assembled in Ford's first assembly plant in Detroit.

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_id=S4KrIMZpwCY

[PHC1]

Dan, I think I saw a glimpse of your MEN220 on that assembly line... Has it really been that long since you've ordered it?

[jdandy]

Serge.......While I was watching the video I found myself thinking about all the OSHA safety violations that would shut a company down today until remedied.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Serge.......While I was watching the video I found myself thinking about all the OSHA safety violations that would shut a company down today until remedied.

No doubt Dan. Have you also noticed how people used to hustle and get the work done back then?

[Still-One]

Ford had been building the Model T in another plant in Detroit. When they moved to the Highland Park location that is when he really implemented the assembly line techniques.

The plant sit empty and in disrepair.

The move to the Rouge Assembly Plant brought about further changes. The Old Rouge Plant received iron ore on freighters, they made their own steel, the made the their own glass, asembled the engines, the interiors, the whole car on one huge location.

The Rouge measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide by 1 mile (1.6 km) long, including 93 buildings with nearly 16 million square feet (1.5 km²) of factory floor space. With its own docks in the dredged Rouge River, 100 miles (160 km) of interior railroad track, its own electricity plant, and ore processing, the titanic Rouge was able to turn raw materials into running vehicles within this single complex, a prime example of vertical-integration production. Over 100,000 workers were employed there in the 1930s.