Chapter 1
The spark of early invention
Chapter 2
Mass production and the everyday car
Chapter 3
Designing the dream
Chapter 4
The road ahead
YOUR GOAL
Master of How the horseless carriage conquered the world
Ch 2 · Mass production and the everyday car
audi Mass Production of Cars
Ninety-three minutes, ninety-three minutes! A moving line builds the car for everyone.
audi A luminous Renaissance-style fresco depicts workers assembling cars on a Toyota production line.
Fun Fact
Car colors: Henry Ford famously wrote that customers could have a Model T in any color 'so long as it is black' because black paint dried the fastest.
Glossary
assembly line (noun)
A manufacturing system in which a product is passed sequentially from one workstation to another. Henry Ford introduced this moving system in 1913 to rapidly manufacture the Model T.
A manufacturing system in which a product is passed sequentially from one workstation to another. Henry Ford introduced this moving system in 1913 to rapidly manufacture the Model T.
Quiz
What key philosophy of the Toyota Production System allows any worker to stop the entire assembly line?
Quiz
Which company developed the highly efficient 'just-in-time' production system in post-WWII Japan?
Quiz
What was the name of the Italian-designed, front-opening bubble car popular in the 1950s?
Quiz
What unique feature did the engine of the classic Volkswagen Beetle have that avoided freezing in winter?
Quiz
What was the starting price of a Ford Model T after production was fully optimized on the assembly line?
Quiz
By how much did Henry Ford's 1913 moving assembly line reduce the assembly time of a Model T chassis?