Assembly line (manufacturing).

An assembly line is a sequence of workers or machines in a factory that are arranged at various stations along a rolling conveyor belt or a similar device. A product travels along the belt. At each station, a worker or machine performs a modification to the product, such as attaching a new component, and then returns the product to the belt. The belt then carries the product to the next station to receive further modifications. By the time the product reaches the end of the assembly line, it is fully assembled. Assembly lines became popular modes of manufacturing in the early 1900s, primarily due to their innovative use by automobile manufacturer Henry Ford. In modern times, factories use assembly lines to create virtually limitless varieties of mass-produced consumer items, ranging from vehicles to toys to food.