The development of what industry was most responsible for advances in mass production?

Many people would say that the automobile industry in the United States was most responsible for advances in mass production. The key was in the thinking of Henry Ford. In order to make automobiles more affordable, his factories used the "assembly line" approach to make his cars. The workmen were assigned a specific job to do as each car was run along an assembly line. Instead of cars being "hand made" so to speak, they were made by the description of above. The end result was a less expensive car.

This idea was then used for other manufacturing industries.