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>> In Britain, the Vulcan
Motor Company was proud

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to film the way their
workers assembled cars,

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slowly and carefully, by hand.

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Craftsmen worked in their
own way, at their own pace.

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The whole process took several
weeks from start to finish.

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These hand made cars
were so expensive,

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that a wide gulf separated
those who built them,

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from those who bought them.

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But the days when cars were
just luxuries for the rich,

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were drawing to a close.

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In 1908, one mans vision
would change manufacturing

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and create a new market.

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Henry Ford, set out to make the
simplest car ever [car horn] a car

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for rural America, a
twentieth century equivalent

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of the horse and buggy.

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To produce the Model T
cheaply, Ford knew he had

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to change the way cars were built.

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That meant changing the
way his workers worked.

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As he reorganized his
factory to turn out Model T's,

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he was influenced by the
efficiency expert, Fredrick Taylor.

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Taylor complained that
hardly a workman can be found

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who doesn't devote his time

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to studying just how
slowly he can work

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and then he devoted his
life to speeding them up.

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When Taylor was brought in,
he first timed the workers

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with stop watches and
noted their every movement.

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In a famous experiment
at an iron works,

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he reorganized a worker
named Schmidt.

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Previously, Schmidt had
hand carried 12 tons

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of pig iron a day up from a wagon.

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After Taylor rearranged things,

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the tolerant Mr. Schmidt
found himself carrying 47 tons

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and production had
been raised 300%.

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Called into an office,

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Taylor helped the world's
fastest typist, type even faster.

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The new world record of 150
words a minute was achieved

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by Margaret Owen and Taylor
claimed much of the credit.

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At Fords factory, Taylorism meant
dividing automobile production

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into simple repetitive steps.

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There would be no need
for skilled craftsmen

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with years of apprenticeship.

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Men could learn to
do any job quickly.

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A trained wheelwright, no longer
made each wheel in its entirety.

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Wheel making was broken
down into almost 100 steps,

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done by different men
at different machines.

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It was much faster, but workers could
still complete only 200 cars a day

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So, in 1913, Ford introduced his
most revolutionary change yet.

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>> In those days, each car
was built from the frame

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up on stationary wooden horses.

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>> The Ford Motor Company
filmed a reenactment

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of how Henry Ford first
tried out his new idea.

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>> Henry Ford watched it for a
while and he had an inspiration.

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Instead of moving the
men past the cars,

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why not move the cars past the men?

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So, on one hot August morning,
they tried it that way.

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A husky young fellow put
a rope over his shoulder

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and Henry Ford called let's go.

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And at that very moment, as the
workmen began to fasten the parts

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onto the slowly moving car,
the assembly line was born.

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>> Soon assembly lines were up
and running in Fords factory.

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The lines became the
key to mass production,

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a system that would
remain virtually unchanged

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for most of the century.

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A network of timing conveyers
was used to deliver parts

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to an exact point on the line.

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The workers became an integral
part of the great machine

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and management set the pace
without discussion or negotiation,

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for unions were forbidden.

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The men faced new pressure as
the final assembly line beat

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out the rhythm for
the whole factory.

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There was no way they
could stop or slow it down.

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Few stood the pace and
[inaudible] for long.

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Men tried it for a few weeks,
then quit, but Ford had an answer.

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The company was making
record profits.

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The time taken to build each
car had dropped to 1 1/2 hours,

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so he could afford to raise pay.

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When he announced he was doubling
wages to the unheard of level

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of $5 a day, the factory was
besieged with applicants.

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Other car makers adapted
the Ford method.

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Ford's recipe, mass production,
low costs, high wages,

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was creating not only cheap
cars, but well paid workers.

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Above all, it was the constant
supply of new men arriving

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into to Detroit that
made it possible.

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The company set the
terms, if they worked fast

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and obeyed orders,
they got the wages.

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It was a game for which
Ford made the rules simple,

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but strict, high pay for hard work.

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>> What Mr. Ford wanted from
his workers was a good days work

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on the shift, go home eat and go
to bed and you'd save your strength

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and get up and give him
a good day the next day.

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That was-- that just pops in
my mind and it is the truth.

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>> Ford's private security force,

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the Plant Protection
Service, kept discipline.

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Anyone who recruited
for the union was fired.

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Company spies kept a lookout

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for those considered
to be trouble makers.

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Workers on the Rouge lines
had never had job security.

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Now those lucky enough still

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to have jobs became
increasingly powerless.

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>> You couldn't even
talk to guys on the job,

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not let the foreman see you, there
was whispers going on and what not.

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A friend of mine was fired 3 times, a guy
by the name of John Gallow, for smiling

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If you went to the bathroom you had

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to get permission
from your supervisor.

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And if you were in there for 3
or 4 minutes, you would take one

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of the service guys, if
you had to use the bathroom

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to relieve your bowels,
he would come up

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and put his foot before you
flush and he'd say stand up.

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And when you stand up and
if there wasn't something

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in the toilet, out you go.