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Show - y - " - rf.S ! t, V V This picture shows two types of conveyors In use In the Routje Plant ot the Ford Motor Company. AN ENDLESS chain conveyor, three and a half to four miles long, said to be the longest In -he world, has just been completed at ;he Rouge Plant of the Ford Motor Company at Dearborn, Michigan. On it parts of Ford cars iu the process ot manufacture are transported from one building to another and completed oarts are carried direct to railroad ;.rs for shipment to branch assembly plants. The conveyor, which carries its argo on suspended hooks, has a daily capacity for 300,000 parts weighing over 2,000,000 pounds. It supplants - freight cars and trucks which have been used for the transfer of many parts from one point to another in the Ford plant. This longest conveyor of them all Is & development of the Ford policy that nothing should be done by manual labor that could better be done by machine. In the early days of his manufacturing manufactur-ing career, Mr. Ford devised the as sembly line a moving track on whlcl cars in the process of assembly wen to the workmen instead of the vork men carrying parts to the car. Tin-assembly Tin-assembly line, perfected in many ways is now used by automobile manufacturers manufac-turers generally. The value of the conveyor in rediu ing physical labor, In saving time, li! preserving system and in cutting costi soon became apparent and its use wa: extended to other purposes about the plant. Now there are literally miles ol conveyors of various types in the Ford plant Some ot them carry parts from one building to another and are care fully synchronized so that the partb arrive at precisely the right moment and In the exact spot where they are needed. Others transport red bot In gots of steel weighing nearly a toD each. Still others move outgoing ship ments. If It were not for the conveyors, according ac-cording to officials ot the Ford Company, Com-pany, mass production would not be possible on its present scale. |