assembly line

noun

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.

assembly line

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

assembly line

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

Notes

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of assembly line¹

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

In the early 2000s, many people who worked in manufacturing in north Alabama supported Southern Democrats, and Obama enjoyed support on assembly lines and in union halls.

From ProPublica

So they drove tractors on farms or they worked on assembly lines and in explosive factories.

From Nautilus

They were constructed with speed and precision in mind, making them ideal for things like assembly line work.

From Fortune

It was an assembly line of sorts, if assembly lines involved a lot of talking, laughing and pan dulce breaks.

From Washington Post

A new company, Iowa Beef Packers, later bought by Tyson, was transforming the industry with automated factories built like an assembly line.

From ProPublica

At break time, the entire assembly line would run over to play the machines that were ready to be shipped out.

From The Daily Beast

These two women are assembly-line workers in the ultimate factory of patriarchy.

From The Daily Beast

By the early 2000s, however, the pendulum was starting to swing back toward the old assembly-line model—with one big difference.

From The Daily Beast

Amid this, however, New York occupied a central place in the assembly-line production of hits and musical acts.

From The Daily Beast

“It's an assembly line,” says Chloe Hilliard, an up-and-coming African American New York City-based working stand up comic.

From The Daily Beast

The kind they turn off the assembly line to hold up the fronts of pool parlors.

From Project Gutenberg

The man didn't look at him; he kept his eyes averted from both Lee and the blood-spattered assembly line.

From Project Gutenberg

It reminded Verkan Vail of some sort of industrial assembly-line operation.

From Project Gutenberg

At the very end of this assembly line a crane was loading a finished object onto a flat-bed trailer.

From Project Gutenberg

The assembly line of pushpots grew shorter, and the remaining monstrosities around the sidewall were plainly near to completion.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• production line