The first piece of material I gathered was a picture via the internet. This picture is of the River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. This picture shows the manufacturing of the fender for a Ford Motor Companyproduct.
It also shows the facilities of the Rouge plant and how the plantit self was state of the art. This plant was the largest of its kind at the time of its construction. The Ford Motor Company at the time was one of the leaders in laborrelations. This picture shows the size of the plant as well as the workingconditions in the facility.
When viewing the photograph you can see the array of pipes and collectiondevices to aid in the circulation of air and the collection of dust andother by products made in the plant. The next component I found is another picture of the interior of the Rougeplant. This picture is one of many conveyer belts in the plant. This beltis moving engine parts from the engine assembly to the final assembly.
Henry Ford was a pioneer in the use of the assembly line in the automobileindustry, and the Rouge plant was the ultimate in that use of the assemblyline. This photo shows the depth of the plant, being able to manufactureall components of the cars without having to ship parts to or from otherlocations in the country. The next collection of photographs is of the exterior of the Rouge plant. These photos were obtained from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
These pictures are of the Rouge during the switch of all production, fromthe Highland Park plant, to the Rouge. It was also the time that the ModelA was beginning production. This collection shows examples of four exterior views of the plant, alludeto the many different factories within the Rouge plant. The Rouge was asteel mill, a foundry, a power producer and, an assembly line.
This allencompassing idea helped ford relegate all aspects of the production oftheir product. Along with the exterior, the interior showed the extent of the allencompassing Rouge plant. The interior photographs, which were also careof the Henry Ford Museum, show more factories within the factory. Forexample, the four photos in this collection display metal forming, andmetallurgical operations. These pictures included forging, the blastfurnaces, removal of slag and, even salvaging scrap from metal ships. The interior had two collections to view and the second reaffirmed what thefirst portrayed.
The second collection displays more metal workingproduction including the hydraulic shear, which was used for sheet metal,the open hearth ladle and the hearth building. These photos gave animpressive direction of the inner workings of the Rouge plant. As said before the Rouge was the largest manufacturing complex in thenation when it was built. An aerial photograph of the plant reaffirms thatfact. The photo was taken in 1930 and you can see by the photo the plantis very impressive. The caption that accompanies the picture gives anactual figure of the Rouge’s square footage, the total is 6,952,484 squarefeet.
Before the Rouge plant Ford’s main manufacturing plant was Highland Park. The Rouge and Highland Park were similar in the way of utilizing theassembly line to produce the Ford product. Many collections of photos werefound of the assembly line at Highland. One collection shows the finalmating of the model T, which is similar to the final mating of the model A .
Also the one day production of the Highland Park plant, which was dwarfedby the Rouge one day production total. The next collection of Highland Park photos displays the typical proceduresin installing components to the automobile. Each of the four picturesshows the installation to the car. From the engine to the tires the sameprinciples that were used at Highland Park were used at the Rouge plant. The final piece of material that was compiled through the search of theInternet and other sources was the National Historic Landmark of Michiganweb page.
This page has a link to an informational page on the Rouge plant. The plant is listed as a national landmark since 1978 and a Michiganlandmark since 1976. Also listed on the site is the date the property wasbought by Henry Ford and, the date all production was shifted from HighlandPark to the Rouge complex. A significant statement is given about theRouge on the marvel of its creation and the full integration of all aspectsof automobile manufacturing to achieve vertical integration and selfsufficiency.
In conclusion the River Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Michiganwas and is one of the great marvels of the early twentieth century. HenryFord was the man who introduced the assembly line to the automobileindustry and the Rouge was his crowning achievement. The major Internetsites used for this compilation was the Henry Ford Museum and GreenfieldVillage home page at http://wwwhfmgv.org and, the National HistoricLandmark in Michigan home page athttp://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/preserve/phisite/riverrouWords/ Pages : 810 / 24
