Assembly line

Every movement has been calculated.

The system expects consistency, but there's a problem, because the person on the assembly line is human.

A human makes mistakes, get tired, has good days and bad days, and humans also think about things that has nothing to do with his job.

For hundred years, we have been trying to solve this problem by measuring people, timing their movements, standardizing their work, and designing systems to eliminate mistakes, distractions, and unpredictability.

Inside a Ford automotive factory, something very extraordinary is starting to happening.

Because now instead of workers moving around stationary cars, the cars are beginning to move past the workers.

That's the beginning of the assembly line.

Production explodes, monotony too.

These are the tools that are available to the All-Star team for free, um, but they're also available for coaching students for free as well because these are the tools that are gonna help you to build that foundation.

And one of the tools that I give out every single time because it's so fundamental, it's probably the most fundamental document of The Appraiser Coach, right? This document is called the assembly line, and the assembly line is a breakdown of each of the steps that it takes to get an appraisal out the door from beginning, from A to Z, right? What are the steps from A to Z? My personal assembly line is about thirty-three steps, okay? It's not about thirty-three steps.

It is thirty-three steps.

Okay? I know 'cause I just had it on my screen just a few minutes ago as I went through it with this coaching client of mine.

Okay? One of the experiences that I've had in my life, and I've shared it here on the podcast before, so I'm not gonna go into detail, is I had an opportunity years ago to travel to Dearborn, Michigan, and to stand on the catwalk and overlook, in the Ford plant, F-150s being made.

And on this side, on my right side, I could see the basic frames coming in, and on this side, a fully finished truck.

And every two minutes or so, a new truck is coming off of the assembly line, right? Now, it takes hours for it to snake through this building, right? But every two minutes, a new vehicle is being produced.

And I can see where the windshields are being put on, and I can see where the paint is being put on, and I can see where this bolt is going on, and that bolt is going on, and oh, look, the front bumper just went on.

But Ford didn't invent the car, right? He invented the system to build it.

the moving assembly line.

It turned the automobile from a rich man's toy into a middle-class necessity.

The Model T wasn't a luxury vehicle.

But first, October 7th, 1913.

At Ford's Highland Park factory in Michigan, the moving assembly line method reached the chassis of the Model T.

It was not the invention of the first assembly line.

Ford's engineers had already experimented with moving magnetos past workers, then extended the method to engines and transmissions.

Ford's biggest breakthrough was not just building cars, though, but finding a faster and cheaper way to make them.

He outwitted the competitors of the period to rule the industry by introducing the moving assembly line in 1913.

Ford dramatically reduced production time and lowered costs, forever changing manufacturing around the world.

No question the moving assembly line was one of the turning points in American automotive industry and in American industry generally.

Again, Henry Ford didn't invent the moving assembly line, but he was the one who realized its potential.

Ford was also known for doubling worker pay to $5 a day in 1914, a move that shocked a lot of business leaders at the time.

Supporters said it helped create a strong middle class.