Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed the World

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Narrator

Ford's second breakthrough was to mass produce the parts. Whereas other manufacturers handmade only a few high priced vehicles, Ford gambled on selling lots of cars. In 1909, the Model T's first year of production, he sold over 10,000 at $825 each, the equivalent of around $18,000 today. (jaunty instrumental music) It was a promising start, but Ford had set his sights on a much bigger market. He just needed to speed up the Model T's production and slash its price in half. Therein lay his biggest challenge. For as simple as it was, building a Model T was still a time consuming, labor intensive process. The solution would be found in the most unlikely

and unsavory of places

(quirky instrumental music) a slaughterhouse. (dramatic music) Shortly after the Model T began to ship, one of Ford's senior employees, a man named Pa Klann visited a Chicago meatpacking plant. He saw carcasses hung from moving hooks in the ceiling. Each worker performed a very specific and specialized job before passing the carcass on. It was a disassembly line. Klann released that by reversing the process and adapting it to facilitate the production of cars, the Model T could be made much faster. (dramatic instrumental music) Ford was convinced and created an assembly line in a new, purpose-built factory. (dramatic music) (metal clattering) It cut $250 off the car's price (dramatic instrumental music) and by 1913, he'd refined the timings for each stage of the process enough that he could install a moving conveyor belt slashing a further $50 off the price. At the peak of the Model T's production, Ford was assembling 150 cars an hour and selling them for less than 1/3 of the original price. This sold for $260 brand new. When a Cadillac was $4,000. And once, of course, the Model T came out then accessory dealers; improve your Model T, get more power, the overhead row, you know, a whole 'nother business grew up out of that. -

Narrator

and unsavory of places

The automobile was no longer a rich man's plaything. Henry Ford had made it possible for anyone to own a car. Henry Ford made 16 million of these and if you made one little product that he could use or buy-- -

Man

and unsavory of places

That was use, you had an instant market. You sold 16 million them. So it really was a game changer. -

Narrator

and unsavory of places

And remember that great horse manure crisis? By 1912, Manhattan's fly infested streets had virtually emptied of horses and filled up with cars. (engine lightly revving) (dramatic music)