Explain the term Fordism

Between approximately 1890 and 1930-or perhaps 1890 and 1950-a host of innovative technologies and business practices were adopted in the US. Europeans speak of 'Fordism': taking the part--Henry Ford's assembly lines in Detroit and his mass production of the Model-T Ford--for the whole. The fact that other industrial economies were unable to fully adopt American technologies of mass production and mass distribution in the first half of the 20th century gave the U.S. a unique level of industrial dominance and technological leadership in the years after 1950.