TekSpan et Henry Ford - Amener le travail aux travailleurs
In 2010 I visited Ford’s Rouge River production plant in Dearborn, Michigan, where I watched a truck production line creating a F-150 from bare chassis to finished article in a matter of minutes. If you like watching precision mechanical stuff working seamlessly then I’d recommend you take a trip to this place – it’s a truly awe-inspiring thing to observe.
Creating something like a 4×4 truck in less than the time it takes me to write a blog post is a sign of what modern manufacturing processes can achieve, even with my 3 words per minute typing speed. And it’s made possible thanks in no small part to the vision of the great Henry Ford.
Ford’s vision back in the early years of the 20th century revolutionised not just manufacturing, but the fledgling automotive industry as a whole. Instead of the accepted practise of moving technicians and assembly teams around the factory during the phases of construction, Ford realised the numerous benefits of flipping that model – and instead moving the vehicle around the factory, all the way through the various stages of assembly.
This meant that workers stayed in the same work area, performing the exact same assembly process time after time, keeping tools and materials in one place, and allowing assembly teams to continuously hone their assembly skills vehicle after vehicle. People remained at the same work station instead of moving around the factory, keeping them focussed on their area of expertise without the distractions of movement between work areas. And thus the concept of taking the work to the workers rather than the workers to the work was introduced to the automotive industry.
Initially a rope-pulled system of conveyor was used, but as Ford developed this production line further – and as he did so, the Ford Motor Company’s efficiencies and profits soared – he introduced a chain-driven conveyor belt system. The system I saw at Dearborn in 2010 was a ground-level belt that gradually propelled the developing vehicle between two yellow divider lines; each assembly team stayed within their own yellow lines, and of course the longer the assembly phase, the further apart the lines – the conveyor just keeps relentlessly rumbling along.
But we don’t make vehicles at TekSpan. Neither do we run a manufacturing line, so why am bothering telling you this?
Because there’s a distinct parallel between Henry Ford’s manufacturing process and modular steel frames. And we do sell modular steel frames.
In the construction world it’s a common practise to build steel support frames offsite and crane them in. As well as offsite manufacturing facilities, this process requires transport and cranes to get the frame from workshop to site, and can require crane-lifts, road closures, and artic lorry movements. Now I’m not saying that’s wrong, and indeed in some instances it’s the only way to go – but many frames really don’t need to be built and moved like this.
Instead, if we were to adopt the Henry Ford vision of progress, let’s consider the benefits of taking the work to the workers. A small truck delivers 6m profiles of TekSpan to site which can be moved by hand down to otherwise inaccessible basements or plant rooms, along with boxable joint components and bolts. Using nothing more technical than a cordless grinder (to make any cuts required to the 6m lengths) and a torque wrench (to tighten the T-Lock bolts to 120Nm) TekSpan can be erected quicker and more efficiently than any welded steel frame could ever be. No welding kit to lug around, no grinding and re-welding on errors and mis-measures or variations, and no spray finishing delays, thanks to the HDG finish. And of course if you cut the lengths prior to site delivery, you’ll need no hot-works permits on site at all.
Much like the vision of Henry Ford back in the day, it takes a while for improvements like modular steel frames to filter through the various layers of process within the industry – but once a contractor has proved the benefit and value of going TekSpan, they don’t look back.
And as to paraphrase one of Henry Ford’s famous expressions, “you can have it in any colour you want, so long as it’s hot dip galvanised”.
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Portuguese