Mass Production

Mass production is the manufacture of products of uniform quality in large quantities using a standardised mechanical process or assembly line.

After a short post-war depression, the American economy grew rapidly in the early 1920s. By 1926, the standard of living in the USA was the highest it had ever been in the country’s history and America was officially the richest nation in the world.

Natural resources such as oil were abundant and this gave the USA an advantage that no other country enjoyed at that level. This profusion of natural resources led to a large-scale industrial development. New techniques meant that goods could be produced much more cheaply on a large scale which led to the production of masses of cheap goods which could be afforded by thousands of normal Americans.

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Mass production was pioneered by Henry Ford in 1913. He could not manufacture cars fast enough to keep up with demand and so he introduced the concept of an assembly line. As a result, one Model T could be produced every three minutes. Components were added as the car moved along and each worker did one specific job. By 1920, a car was produced every ten seconds and Ford realised that if cars could be produced more cheaply, more people would be able to buy them and as demand rose and the company sold more cars, he could make ...

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