Imitation of the assembly line

As we already know, the assembly line was created so that products could be massed produced in a cheaper and more efficient manner. The assembly line works by moving the product and keeping the workers stationary. The workers each complete one part of putting the product together, and when the product reaches the last person, the job is completed.

Now, my experiment for replicating the assembly line was creating a simple arts and crafts project called the eye of god. The eye of god is created by gluing two popsicles sticks together and weaving yarn around the popsicle sticks until you are close to reaching the end of the popsicle sticks.

I recruited 4 of my friends and asked each of them to create their own eye of god. I timed each friend, and they were able to finish their eye of god between 10 and 12 minutes. While they were creating their eyes of god, I noticed that the process could be split up into two main steps in production. The first was creating the cross. All that was required to create the cross was for the person to put some glue in the middle of the popsicle stick, and stick it to the other popsicle stick, creating a cross. The second, and more time-consuming step in the production was weaving the yarn around the cross. This took up 90 percent of the time taken to create the eye of god.

In my assembly line, I had one friend glue together the popsicle sticks, and three friends weave the yarn around the popsicle sticks. Eventually, I integrated the person that was gluing the popsicle sticks together, into also weaving the yarn onto the crosses.

By the time 12 minutes had passed, 7 eyes of god were created in the time that only 4 had been created when each person made their own. With a 75 percent increase in production from the assembly line process was exactly what the assembly line was created. The dramatic increase in efficiency had one eye of god created every minute and forty-two seconds, versus one eye of god being created in an average of 3 minutes.

Overall, my experiment created exactly what the assembly line is used for; to maximize efficiency. The assembly line helped in creating more product in less time. The process that was perfected by henry ford 100 years ago is still relevant today and is used in all industries in order to efficiently create and mass produce a product.