assembly line

assembly line definition - business

assembly line

A production system in which an article moves from station to station, where repetitive operations are performed to efficiently convert inputs to a finished product. Assembly-line production standardizes operations in order to reduce costs and increase quality. Toyota Motor Corporation moved from a rigid assembly line, in which employees performed a specific task with dedicated equipment, to a more flexible production system in which workers were able to switch to different tasks.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Business Terms Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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