assembly line

American  

noun

assembly lines plural

1. an arrangement of machines, tools, and workers in which a product is assembled by having each perform a specific, successive operation on an incomplete unit as it passes by in a series of stages organized in a direct line.

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assembly line British  

noun

1. a sequence of machines, tools, operations, workers, etc, in a factory, arranged so that at each stage a further process is carried out

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assembly line Cultural  

1. A line of factory workers and equipment along which a product being assembled passes consecutively from operation to operation until completed.

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Assembly lines are found in many industries but are particularly associated with automobile manufacturing.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• assembly lines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of assembly line

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

assembly line

The assembly line is designed to make other vehicle styles in the future, including small cars and commercial vans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

The cost of robots has fallen while it remains expensive to redesign the assembly line.

From BBC ● May 28, 2026

Robots can literally walk off the assembly line at the end of a shift after doing jobs that humans once did.

From Barron's ● May 18, 2026

In her vision, Warhol’s Factory is a literal assembly line, where actors and artists come to be molded and assembled into products, only to be cast out when they’re deemed defective.

From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026

On one screen Alex could see the underground laboratory, on another the assembly line, on a third the airstrip with the last of the trucks on its way out.

From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz

Related Words

• production line