What was called an assembly line was the division of an item's production process into several steps, with workers each responsible for only one specific step taking turns to work, ultimately completing the entire job.
Take a practical example: making a stool first required producing planks and strips of wood. Then the planks were made into the seat, the strips into the legs and crossbars, and finally, they were assembled together.
If a single carpenter were to make it, he would first need to find a suitable tree, chop it down, turn it into lumber, process the lumber into planks and strips, and then slowly make the stool bit by bit. That way, one carpenter could naturally make only one stool at a time, and it would take considerable time and effort. If many stools were needed, one either had to wait patiently or find more carpenters.
But if the assembly-line method was used, those who felled trees only felled trees; those who processed lumber only processed lumber; those who made planks and strips, those who made stool seats, legs, and crossbars, and those responsible for final assembly were all different people. They only needed to focus on their own part of the work and did not need to know too much. In that case, anyone nimble-fingered and clever could do the job after a little training. There was no need to put professional skilled workers—carpenters—to work over such trivial things.
Moreover, because each group of workers only needed to handle their own portion, their skills would improve very quickly. Before long, the stools they made would be no worse than those made by carpenters.
Since they only ever understood one thing, their wages naturally would not be as high as those of professional carpenters. Thus, even if their production