Henry Ford’s Assembly Line Family Tree
Looking at Ford’s use of the assembly line with an “organic” perspective shows us it’s family tree. Ford’s need to solve his manufacturing problem of assembly was already solved in potato farming. It took an open mind, an uninterrupted environment, and “luck Lightning” to strike Henry that day under the tree for his right brain to see the solution, put the right pieces together in the right image, and communicate innovation to Henry’s conscious mind for implementation.
Another important point here is nearly nothing is ever actually invented. Nothing “new” ever spontaneously combusts from nothing. While the iPhone is an amazing innovation, it just the concept of the telephone cell phone, camera / digital, computer that runs apps, and solid state circuitry / transistors, all in one very small, portable device.
See nothing new. The iPhone was just assembled out of previous innovations in a very unique, very small package. And if you look at the “smart phone”, you can trace the telephony functions back to the flip phone, back to the “brick”, back to the car phone, back to the touch tone landline home phone, back to the rotary phone, back to the party line, back to the flash call.
And, if you wanted to trace the smart phone’s heritage and genetics further back, you could take it through Morse Code and back to the invention of electricity. Phew! That’s organic Innovation. What can you see for the new, next generation?
Lon Safko
Serial Innovator, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Innovative Thinking
Tags: innovative thinking, creative, creative thinking, Innovation, critical thinking definition, innovation definition, critical thinking skills, creative process