What? I believe you mean Ford was the "pioneer" of the assembly line which he used not as an original means of production but as a way to streamline the production of automobiles. All an assembly line is a long line of people doing the exact same task over and over where the object is slowly put together as it goes along the line. You can build a car or a locomotive in any properly equipped garage it just isn't as efficient.

The assembly line concept goes back further than Ford (I'm assuming that's who you mean). If you read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, first published in 1776, he talks in great length about the process of making straight pins. It works in the same way, each person doing one repetitive step in order to make the end product more efficient and cheaper.