Mass production means making a very large number of the same standardized product. It is often done on assembly lines. Before factories, things were made by hand. One worker or a small team made each one. Then the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the late 1700s. Cloth was one of the first things made in factories.

Steam engines helped spread factory work in Britain. Mills made flour, paper and cotton. Banks and investors helped pay for the first factories. Samuel Slater came to America from England. He brought Arkwright's mill designs with him. Many early factories sat beside rivers. A river turned a big water wheel that ran the machines.

A second wave came in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It brought electricity, the production line and a new way to make steel. Then Henry Ford's moving line began running in 1913. His company built the Model T. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts.

Ford's line saved so much time. He could cut the price of the Model T. That made it affordable for the middle class. In 1914, Ford raised his workers' pay to $5 for an eight-hour day. Before that, it was $2.34 for nine hours. Ford built about 15 million Model Ts.

In 1927 Ford moved to a huge complex in Dearborn, Michigan. Some big factories are made of several buildings. They are filled with machines. Machines can make many things at once. By hand, it is one at a time. A toy factory might have doll bodies moving along a line.

At Toyota, a machine or a worker can stop the line when something goes wrong. Just-in-time means making or receiving only what is needed. It also means getting it when it is needed. Many factories use a conveyor belt to carry things along. Working on a line means doing the same motion again and again.

Words to know

• mass: very large amount
• standardized: made alike
• assembly: putting together
• investors: money givers

The short version

In a factory, people and machines work together to build a product. Many factories use an assembly line, where a product is built step by step as it moves along. Factories grew during the Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the late 1700s.

Quick facts

• Mass production means making a very large number of the same product, often on assembly lines.
• Henry Ford's moving assembly line began running on October 7, 1913.
• In 1914, Ford raised workers' pay to $5 for an eight-hour day.
• Henry Ford's company built the Model T, and by 1918 half of all cars in America were Model Ts.
• Banks and investors helped pay for the first factories.