Ford Motor Company: The River Rouge Manufacturing Complex :: American America History

Ford Motor Company: The River Rouge Manufacturing Complex The first piece of material I gathered was a picture via the internet. This picture is of the River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. This picture shows the manufacturing of the fender for a Ford Motor Company product. It also shows the facilities of the Rouge plant and how the plant itself was state of the art. This plant was the largest of its kind at the time of its construction. The Ford Motor Company at the time was one of the leaders in labor relations. This picture shows the size of the plant as well as the working conditions in the facility. When viewing the photograph you can see the array of pipes and collection devices to aid in the circulation of air and the collection of dust and other by products made in the plant. The next component I found is another picture of the interior of the Rouge plant. This picture is one of many conveyer belts in the plant. This belt is moving engine parts from the engine assembly to the final assembly. Henry Ford was a pioneer in the use of the assembly line in the automobile industry, and the Rouge plant was the ultimate in that use of the assembly line. This photo shows the depth of the plant, being able to manufacture all components of the cars without having to ship parts to or from other locations in the country. The next collection of photographs is of the exterior of the Rouge plant. These photos were obtained from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. These pictures are of the Rouge during the switch of all production, from the Highland Park plant, to the Rouge. It was also the time that the Model A was beginning production. This collection shows examples of four exterior views of the plant, allude to the many different factories within the Rouge plant. The Rouge was a steel mill, a foundry, a power producer and, an assembly line. This all encompassing idea helped ford relegate all aspects of the production of their product. Along with the exterior, the interior showed the extent of the all encompassing Rouge plant. The interior photographs, which were also care of the Henry Ford Museum, show more factories within the factory. For example, the four photos in this collection display metal forming, and metallurgical operations. These pictures included forging, the blast furnaces, removal of slag and, even salvaging scrap from metal ships. The interior had two collections to view and the second reaffirmed what the