While many people might credit Henry Ford with the creation of the assembly line, it was actually one of his employees, Charles Sorensen, who “examined the relationship between people, machines, tooling, and products and organized them to achieve a continuous flow of production”, according to an article by Daniel Theobald, published today on Robotics and Automation News.
Sorensen’s innovation – albeit in Ford’s employ – could be seen as the first example of a cyber-physical system which optimised, indeed launched, a new era of mass manufacturing which emphasised efficiency and productivity.
Sorensen’s assembly line enabled Ford to build a Model T car in two-and-a-half hours instead of the 12 it had previously taken – without compromising quality, and possibly even improving it. [Read more…] about Mass customisation makes itself at home alongside mass manufacturing
