Sometimes the best ideas come from just looking at another industry and applying their lessons to your business. For example, when Henry Ford visited a meat packing plant, he saw how a side of beef was placed on a trolley and as it traveled down a track, a line of butchers each performing a single task dismember the carcass into various cuts of meat for packaging. This visit inspired him to reverse the process of removing parts and consider how it might be used to assemble parts.
The conveyor driven assembly plant was born. Prior to implementing the conveyor assembly system, when a craftsman built a car, it took more than 12 hours to assemble. However, after the conveyor assembly line process was implemented, it look just 1.5 hours. Efficiency became a religion and soon the plant was turning out 1,000 cars per day. The skills required to build a car were engineered out of a process and became so simple any able-bodied man could perform a single receptive task with minimal education.
What industry might hold the answers to your next innovation?
