Rise And Fall Of Mass Production

Introduction

•English Parliamentarian Henry Ellis commissioned for a car

from company P & L in Paris in 1894. Back then P & L was
just a machine tool based company which had just started
rolling out automobiles from their facility.
•The company got a jump on other competitors when
Mr.Levassor met Mr.Daimler, who is founder of Mercedes-
Benz. P&L got a licence from merc to manufacture to its
high-speed gasoline engine. The company followed CLASSIC
CRAFT-PRODUCTION system,,where only custom built,
hand assembled, craftmanship oriented cars were produced.
•Mr.Ellis made amendments in British law such that P&L
could produce automobiles running at 9.84 mph
•P&L and Evelyn Ellis are worth remembering, despite
their subsequent failure in future because they together
represent Craftmanship Production
•Panhard and Levassor was soon competing with scores of
companies which had similar production patterns.
•By 1905 Hundreds of companies from Europe and N
America started producing automobiles by craft
techniques and there was tight competition between
automobile companies
•After First World War, auto industry progressed to mass
production. And hundreds of craft production companies
perished. They tried to make a switch to mass production
but only few companies prevailed.
•The earlier companies started focusing on higher end,
luxury models,, and found a market for themselves.
•Best example for this Aston Martin. Over 65 years the
company has produced just 10,000 cars!!
 Characteristics of Craft Production:
• Workforce was highly skilled
•Organizations were extremely decentralized
•General Purpose Machine tools used
•Very low production volumes

Causes for Failure of Craft Production

•Cost of cars were very high
•Consistency and reliability low
•Too much dependency on Chauffeurs and Mechanics
•No resources for small independent shops to undertake
R&D
 MASS PRODUCTION
•With the entry of Henry Ford into the scenario after first world
war,, General design of cars and trucks with front engine IC
vehicle similar to nowadays vehicles came into production.
•Ford found a way to overcome problems in craft production,
and his technique increased product quality . This innovative
system was called Mass Production
•The key to mass production was Moving or continuous
assembly line along with consistent interchangeability of parts
and ease of fitting sub components.
•Advances in the machine tools and use of pre hardened metals
was instrumental in achieving mass production.
Minutes of Craft Mass Percentage
effort production Production reduction

Engine 594 226 62

Magneto 20 5 75
Axle 150 26.5 83
Components 750 93 88
into the vehicle

Craft Production versus Mass Production

•Henry Ford’s mass production ruled auto industry for
more than half a century
•Every industry in North America and Western Europe
adopted the techniques of mass production.
•The companies are so ingrained with these techniques
that they are finding it tough to move on and
implement Lean manufacturing techniques in their
plant