Idea people are not necessarily original. An excellent case in point is Henry Ford. With the assembly line, Ford was able to price the Model T within a middle-class budget. Production was so swift and efficient that the car only came in black because the other colors dried too slow. Through famous for the assembly line, he did not invent it. His company was not even the first to produce cars on an assembly line.
Arsenale Nuovo opened in 1320 as a mass production facility for the Venetian’s Navy and merchant vessels. During the 1500’s, the shipyard could output one fully equipped ship per day. During construction, the ships moved along specialized build teams by way of canals. The manufacturing process was designed to minimize the distance and time builders needed to move equipment.
Neat fact, Galileo worked as a consultant at the Arsenale Nuovo Venetian Shipyard in Venice, Italy in the late 1500’s.
In 1901, Ransom E. Olds began mass producing the low priced Oldsmobile Curved Dash using his patented assembly line process, making it the first mass-produced automobile. With the Curved Dash, Oldsmobile would go on to outproduce and underprice the competing Ford Model A.
A man named Pa Klann got an idea for a more efficient assembly line when he visited a slaughterhouse and saw hanging carcasses moving down a line of workers. Individuals repeated the same cut, quickly disassembling each carcass. He told Henry Ford about an idea to have the autos move along the assembly line with the same efficiency. Henry Ford’s team began researching the most efficient means possible of running an assembly line. Ford’s research and development culminated in the production of the Model T in 1913, nearly 600 years after Arsenale Nuovo opened.
So, Henry Ford did not invent mass production, and his company was not the first to produce the automobile on an assembly line. Ford’s ‘idea’ was to tweak an existing method.
Look around. What objects do you see? Are any of them annoying? Do any of them have silly or stupid features? Can you think of an easier way to open it, close it, store it, or make it?