Ford assembly line, 1913.

From a New York Times article by Bill Vlasic about the centennial of the assembly line, Henry Ford’s enduring gift to the manufacturing world, which has been updated but never abandoned:

“Updating the assembly line is a big part of the ‘One Ford’ corporate strategy that has helped the nation’s second-biggest automaker lead the recent recovery of the American auto industry.

‘There are probably very few inventions in the auto industry that started 100 years ago and are still here today,’ said John Fleming, Ford’s executive vice president for global manufacturing.

So much has changed in the industry since Mr. Ford installed the first, rudimentary assembly line at his company’s Model T plant in Highland Park, Mich., in October 1913.

But automakers around the world use essentially the same basic method of mass production, turning a bare automotive chassis at one end of the line into a finished car at the other.

In the beginning, the line was a critical step toward ensuring that the same processes were repeated over and over to manufacture one specific model of the highest quality. Now, the modern assembly line produces a wide variety of vehicles that are virtually custom-built at a moment’s notice for customers in far-flung markets.”