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.

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

New technology like mail-order services and kiosks try “to put medicine on an assembly line, and patients don’t fit on assembly lines,” said Hoey, a licensed pharmacist in Oklahoma, Virginia and Texas.

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From Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills to Henry Ford’s electric automobile assembly lines, 19th-century American capitalism led to industrialization and unprecedented economic growth.

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The facilities work as a system to supply the robot-assisted assembly lines pumping out electric vehicles.

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"This is similar to finding the missing links in an assembly line," says Dr. Dang, UBC Okanagan Principal's Research Chair in Natural Products Biotechnology.

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More famously, Henry Ford established the assembly line, revolutionizing worker productivity and enabling higher wages through the Five Dollar Day.

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Related Words

• production line