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Model T Ford |
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9.3.19 US Assembly Plants
- Fully assembled Model Ts that had been manufactured in Detroit were "knocked down" - the wheels removed and then prepared for shipment to the car dealers around the USA.
- A standard railroad boxcar contained three or four “knocked-down” Model T cars.
- In 1910, because the parts and sub-assemblies of twelve cars could be despatched in a railroad boxcar, the company started to despatch the main parts of the Model T for assembly at certain branches. What were the “main parts”?
- Some branches included specially designed assembly plants.
- The first branch with an assembly capability plant in the USA was opened in 1910 at Kansas City.
- Later in 1910 a second branch assembly plant was opened at Fargo, North Dakota.
- Ford's first San Francisco branch, which opened in 1911, originally received “knocked down” Model Ts. In late 1913 a new branch assembly plant was opened in San Francisco.
- By 1914, 15 of the companies 29 US branches were branch assembly plants.
- These 15 branch assembly plants were responsible for producing about a quarter of the company's total output in 1914 of more than 202,000 cars.
- In 1914 the company’s largest branch plant, which was in Chicago, assembled more than 150 cars daily.
- By 1920 there were 36 Ford branches in the USA. How many contained assembly plants?
- A report in “The Ford Industries” published by the Ford Motor Company in 1926 included the following information:
- In addition to the Highland Park manufacturing plant in Detroit there were 34 branches in the USA, 31 of which contained assembly plants.
- Model Ts were not assembled at the Washington DC, Fargo and Salt Lake City branches.
- The Company used over 500,000 freight cars annually to move material and supplies to its branches.
- 50,000 workers were employed in Detroit and 26,000 at the other 34 branches.
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