Assembly Line

Definition: Assembly Line

Assembly Line

Noun

1. Mechanical system in a factory whereby an article is conveyed through sites at which successive operations are performed on it.

Specialty Definition: Assembly Line

Domain	Definition
Transportation	The work station in a manufacturing plant for the assembly of finished products or major components. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Assembly line

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which interchangable parts are added to a product in a sequential manner to create an end product.

The assembly line was first introduced by Eli Whitney to create muskets for the U.S. Government. Henry Ford later introduced the moving assembly line for his automobile factory to cut manufacturing costs and deliver a cheaper product.

History of the Assembly Line

Until the 1800s, craftsmen would create each part of a product individually, and assemble them, making changes in the parts so that they would fit together - the so-called English System of manufacture.

Eli Whitney invented the American System of manufacturing in 1799, using the ideas of division of labour and of engineering tolerance, to create assemblies from parts in a repeatable manner.

This linear assembly process, or assembly line, allowed relatively unskilled laborers to add simple parts to a product. As all the parts were already made, they just had to be assembled.

While originally not of the quality found in hand-made units, designs using an assembly line process required less knowledge from the assemblers, and therefore could be created for a lower cost.

History of the Moving Assembly Line

Ford assembly line, 1913
(larger version)

Henry Ford installed the World's first moving assembly line on December 1, 1913, as one of several innovations intended to cut costs and permitting mass production. The idea was an adaption of the system used in the meat processing factories of Chicago, and the conveyor belts used in grain mills. By bringing the parts to the workers considerable time was saved.

Pre Industrial Revolution

Although Whitney was first to use the assembly line in the industrial age, the idea of interchangable parts and the assembly line was not new, though it was little used.

The idea was first developed in Venice several hundred years ealier, where ships were produced using pre-manufactured parts, assembly lines, and mass production; the Venice Arsenal apparently produced nearly one ship every day, in what was effectively the world's first factory.

Synonyms: Assembly Line

Synonyms: line (n), production line (n). (additional references)

Synonyms by domain: assembly-line (transportationmechanical engineering).

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Crosswords: Assembly Line

English words defined with "assembly line": line worker ♦ Opel ♦ Wilhelm von Opel. (references)

Specialty definitions using "assembly line": ASSEMBLER II, ASSEMBLER, BICYCLE II, ASSEMBLER, INSULATION AND FLOORING, assembler, lawn-and-garden machinery, ASSEMBLER, PRODUCTION, ASSEMBLER, SMALL PRODUCTS I, assembler, tractor, ASSEMBLY LOADER, ASSEMBLY-INSPECTOR HELPER ♦ bench assembler, BENCH CARPENTER ♦ car driver, car tester, case assembler, chassis driver ♦ ELECTRONICS UTILITY WORKER ♦ FOXING CUTTER, HOT KNIFE ♦ group leader, GROUP LEADER, PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY ♦ industrial robot operator, inline transfer machine, INSPECTOR, BICYCLE, INSPECTOR, TOYS ♦ main-line assembler ♦ OUTBOARD-MOTOR INSPECTOR, overland driver ♦ paint and table edger, PAINTER, PANEL EDGE, Pipe-line, PROGRESSIVE ASSEMBLER AND FITTER ♦ REPAIRER, GENERAL, road tester, ROBOTIC MACHINE OPERATOR, ROUND-UP-RING HAND ♦ setup worker, electronics, SUPERVISOR, ASSEMBLY, SUPERVISOR, ASSEMBLY STOCK, SUPERVISOR, ENGINE ASSEMBLY ♦ team coordinator, TEST DRIVER I, transfer line ♦ UTILITY WORKER, LINE ASSEMBLY. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Assembly Line

Domain	Title
Books	Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (reference) Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Assembly Line

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Photo Album: Assembly Line

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Caption: Disc Phonograph Assembly Line; Unknown Date; {29.410/116} (jpg).		On the Grumman assembly line at Bethpage, Long Island, New York, February 1938. The two planes in the foreground are Bureau #s 1025 and 1024, both in the markings of Marine Fighting Squadron One (VMF-1). Credit: NAVY.
	Army truck manufacturer, final assembly line operation at Dodge Bros. Corp., Detroit, Mich., in which water is put in the radiator and gasoline in the fuel tank. Credit: Library of Congress.		Milk bottling assembly line. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Factory workers on assembly line for bearings. Credit: Library of Congress.		Transformer manufacture. Essential to the efficiency of thousands of plants producing war materials are these distribution transformers, here being assembled on assembly line in a large Eastern plant. Westinghouse, Sharon, Pennsylvania. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Antiaircraft gun carriage. Thirty-seven millimeter antiaircraft gun carriages come down the assembly line. In the foreground, the frame for the carriage is assembled. War production program scene in a Pennsylvania heavy industry plant now converted to the. Credit: Library of Congress.		On North American's outdoor assembly line, a painter cleans the tail section of a P-51 fighter prior to spraying the olive-drab camouflage of the U.S. Army, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Cowling and control rods are added to motors for North American B-25 bombers as they move down the assembly line, N[orth] A[merican] Aviation, Inc., Inglewood, Calif. Credit: Library of Congress.		General Electric, Electronic Park, Syracuse, New York. Assembly line. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Sounds Captioned with "Assembly Line".

Play	Caption
	Factory; manufacturing; manufacture; industry; industrial; automated; factory-made; industry; industrialized; machine-made; manufactured; manufacturing; mechanical; mechanized; smokestack; streamlined; assembly line.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Assembly Line

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Generally, RMDs affect individuals who perform repetitive tasks such as assembly line work, meatpacking, sewing, playing musical instruments, and computer work. The disorders may also affect individuals who engage in activities such as carpentry, gardening, tennis, and lifting children. (references)
Business		The Korean manufacturers are not likely to invest in an assembly line facility for the production of any equipment that has low domestic demand. (references)
		Currently, there is no manufacturing plant in the country but only two assembly line plants with a small production to satisfy the local demand. (references)
		Finally, the new vehicle market in China is growing, making it easier to impose standards as cars come off the assembly line or through customs on imported vehicles. (references)
Economic History	France	The Airbus factory in Toulouse will be the final assembly line for the A-380 and will undergo expansion to allow a production rate of 4 super-jumbos per month by 2006. Airbus Military Company has received 225 options from participating European nations for the A-400M military transport aircraft. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Speeches: Assembly Line

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Bush	1989-1993	When health coverage for a fellow on the assembly line costs thousands of dollars, the cost goes into the product he makes.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Expression: Assembly Line

Expression using "assembly line": assembly line production. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Assembly Line

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
assembly line	89
henry ford and the assembly line	20
assembly line picture	12
assembly line balancing	7
assembly line piston	7
assembly line photo	4
assembly line worker	4
assembly line printing product screen	4
assembly line model t	4
assembly line simulation	3
assembly line production	3
assembly line machine	3
assembly line operation	3
assembly line job	3
assembly line video	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Assembly Line

Language		Translations for "assembly line"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏نظام التجميع. (various references)

Finnish		tuotantolinja (line, train), liukuhihna (conveyor belt). (various references)

French		chaîne de montage. (various references)

German		Fließband (conveyor belt, line-assembly, production line), Band (band, belt, bond, cement, connection, conveyor belt, frequency band, group, hoop, lace, league, ligament, ligated, line, reel, ribbon, strap, string, stripe, tape, tie, track, volume, wavelength), Montageband. (various references)

Greek		γραμμή συναρμολογήσεωσ, τράπεζα συναρμολογήσεωσ. (various references)

Hungarian		szerelõszalag. (various references)

Italian		catena di montaggio (production line). (various references)

Manx		linney (line, row). (various references)

Pig Latin		assemblyay inelay

Portuguese		linha de montagem. (various references)

Russian		сборочный конвейер. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		montažna traka. (various references)

Spanish		línea de montaje (production line). (various references)

Turkish		montaj bandı. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Anagrams: Assembly Line

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-e-e-i-l-l-m-n-s-s-y"
	-2 letters: namelessly.
	-3 letters: aimlessly, balminess, baselines, blameless, messaline, mislabels, seminally, sensillae.
	-4 letters: ainsells, amylenes, assemble, assembly, bailsmen, baseline, beamless, beslimes, besmiles, bimensal, eyeballs, lameness, lesbians, lienable, limbless, limeless, lineable, lineless, mailless, maleness, maneless, manilles, mealless, menially, mesially, mineable, mislabel, missable, myelines, nameless, salesmen, seisable, senilely, sensible, sensibly, sensilla.
	-5 letters: abseils, aimless, ainsell, alienly, amylene, bailees.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.