Free article on management & leadership for . Visit the [ PDF GALLERY ] for articles in PDF format. Don't make a product — make a process. Follow the lead of Henry Ford — get a substantial & solid boost in productivity. Completely Out Of Fashion When was the last time you were introduced to someone? While getting acquainted, did you ask the other person about their employment? Chances are they did not say, “Well, I'm an Assembly Line Worker.” Of course not. In today's buzzword-riddled-society who would say such a thing? Certainly, persons working in a retail store are not “Clerks” — they are “Sales Associate Team Members” or, preferably, “Customer Service Representatives.” Hand held notebooks are no longer “organizers,” they are “Personal Data Assistants.” The same thing applies to “hamburgers.” They are now a “Super-Mega-Deluxe Meal.” The “Assembly Line Worker” occupation has become part of this socially correct re-naming practice. They are Operator-Technicians, Engineering Extension Assistants, Documentation Specialists, Transaction Analysts, Equipment Utilization Specialists, and Quality Assurance Leaders. To refer to yourself as an “Assembly Line Worker” would not be sheik. However, when fashion is left behind and an objective view is achieved, all of us really are Assembly Line Workers. We obtain information, documentation, parts, sub-assemblies, or product from a source. We then perform a work task and when it is complete we send our work product to the next step. It’s simple. It’s direct. But, the title and description is completely out of style. Isn't it interesting how many think that changing the psychological profile of a title and job description will improve product quality or customer satisfaction? Henry Ford Long before many fashionable terms were created, Henry Ford launched the modern assembly line and managed it into a highly productive and profitable activity. As an expectation of performance, normal factory operations were to: Reduce costly inventories. Disallow defective parts or documents from advancing to the next workstation. Bring work to the worker. Bring the work to the worker only as there is demand. Move work from one work point to another as fast as possible. Understand the factory as an accumulation of discrete tasks. Establish all work tasks in their most distinct and simple form. Place decision making responsibility and authority at the work event level. Make quality, reliability, low cost, and high volume capability the centerpieces of the group. Naturally, it is important for some to rename these work concepts and objectives — mainly for the purpose of aggrandizement, book sales, or seminar attendance. And so, they have now been rediscovered and renamed. They include such topics as: Just-In Time. Lean Manufacturing & Flow. Kaizen. Poka-Yoke. Quality Circles. Six Sigma. 360 Degree Management. Kanban. Enterprise Centrality. Zero Defects. Target Analysis Process. T-Groups. … and so on. Isn’t it amazing? It is nearly inconceivable that Henry Ford's factories accomplished what they did without knowledge of these special terms and their current meanings. As the saying goes, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is probably a duck.” These points of view, among many others, walk, talk and act like the basic principles of assembly. They do their best to capture “assembly” under a different and more fashionable name. The Merits of Assembly In 1904, in its first full year of operation, the Ford Motor Company sold 1,745 cars. By 1908, the company had revenue of over $6 million on sales of 9,000 automobiles. This was a healthy and substantial business. But, it was nothing compared to the transformation which high volume assembly would bring. In its first few years, the four-story factory was organized from top to bottom. Assembly began at the fourth floor where body panels were formed. On the third floor, paint was applied and wheels were placed on the frame. Assembly was completed on the second floor and the car rolled down the final ramp to the first-floor. Each task, each job, each motion, every part, and all materials were carefully orchestrated for product perfection in high volume. Production increased with a 100% compound annual growth rate for over four years. From the initial volume of 19,000 cars in the first year, a staggering 248,000 cars were produced in the following year. In accomplishing this, Ford had just 13,000 workers compared with 66,000 at competing plants. Before establishing the full assembly line activities, Ford's factory would complete a new car every 12 hours and 30 minutes. By 1920, the factory would ship one car every one hour and 33 minutes. Ford's concentration on speed and efficiency of the assembly process resulted in the dramatic gains shown in the following illustration. The Ford factory’s production success from 1911 through 1915 has become a model for companies even today. His objectives were to dramatically increase the volume capability of the line through speed and efficiency. By doing so, he provided steadily decreasing per-unit pricing to the customer. As a result, sales skyrocketed along with market share and company net income.  The purpose of bringing Henry Ford’s assembly techniques to your attention is not to induce you to stop whatever you’re doing and begin making cars. It is meant, however, to bring a question to your mind: Are there virtues in the methods and concepts of the assembly process that you should be using?  Absolutely. No matter what your business situation, it would be well to take some advice from Henry Ford: See where waste of time and materials can be eliminated. Don’t think of the jobs in your group as a block of tasks. Rather, examine each one and break them down into separate components. Breakdown all tasks to their simplest and easiest component. Discover redundant tasks. Understand the cost of each work event with its equipment and materials. Deliver work to the worker. Establish smooth flow without bottlenecks. Focus on speed and efficiency. Accelerate the tempo of your operation. Drive the decision making authority down to the lowest possible level. Provide fast and complete visibility of defects or malfunctions anywhere in the system. Know the status of all work in progress all the time. In fact, here is an interesting test. Ask yourself, “Would it be possible for me to increase my work volume by 100 times using my existing methods?” If your answer is no, chances are you need to dig heavily into adopting sound assembly techniques.   Hire Henry Ford If you want substantial and solid improvement in the productivity of your group, take a second look at the virtue of an assembly process. Hire Henry Ford — or at least his good methods — to advance your group.  Put the assembly mentality to work. You do not need to spend time digesting the latest syntax. It all tracks back to assembly. Remember Henry Ford’s comment, "Everything can always be done better than it is being done."