If you’ve ever visited an automotive plant – or really any other factory – chances are you’ve seen what an assembly line looks like. It’s just the way things are done, and while methods and practices evolve and improve over time, it’s hard to imagine when they were done any differently.

But they were. More than 104 years ago, no one was building anything on an assembly line. And more than any vehicle it’s made or technology it’s championed, that – above anything else – remains Ford’s greatest contribution to the industrialized world.

According to the United States Census Bureau, it was 104 years ago today – on April 13, 1913 – that the Ford Motor Company set up the first moving assembly line at its old plant in Highland Park, Michigan – before the city (on Detroit’s outskirts) was even incorporated.

Before Henry Ford implemented the assembly line, it took workers more than 12 hours to complete a single Model T. Once it was installed, though, it took only 93 minutes. Eventually, the bureau reports, a new Model T rolled off the assembly line every 24 seconds until Ford had made 15 million of them. Most automakers haven’t produced that many of any model – in fact most haven’t even come close.

The production improvement didn’t just help the company’s bottom line – although you can bet it did that, too. While most car prices only increase over time, the assembly line actually drove Ford’s prices down – from $825 in 1909 (before the assembly line) to $260 in 1925. If that’s not progress, we don’t know what is… and the rest of the world followed.

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