The Factory System

Work Before Factories In the home or small shops Specialized - workers had to be very skilled Many owned small businesses

Working Class – After Factories Repetitive actions Unskilled Low Wages work quickly or risk punishment No safety regulations Rigid schedules

Working Class Whole families had to work Children as young as 6 worked up to 15 hour shifts Many required to live in company housing and shop using “script” at company stores

Mass Production Perfected by car manufacturer Henry Ford Products were now mass-produced Conveyor belt, one repetitive action Parts were Standardized Each product was exactly the same Fewer skilled workers were needed (less $$ spent in wages)

Mass Production Ford invented the idea of using an Assembly Line to speed up production.

Key Quote – Henry Ford ‘A customer can have any color he likes for his car so long as it's black’ How would this have helped to cut production costs?

Assembly Lines Henry Ford 1925 ‘… each man and each machine do only one thing ... the thing is to keep everything in motion and take the work to the man not the man to the work’ Henry Ford 1925

Problems with Factories Can you think of some problems that workers would have with the factory system??? What are they?