Comment by xiphias2

> By assembly line I specifically mean a Fordian assembly line where units move between stations manned by specialists in a single step of the process.

That was the result of lots of innovation that Ford did. And then all the car companies stopped innovating on it.

For example Ford started to use electric motors for each machine separately instead of having 1 big motor that tried to power all machines. He sped up the assembly line by 10x at least and measured all operarions carefully.

The assembly line you are talking about is the last process set in stone for 100 years instead of innovating further.