Henry Ford created the Model T with the goal of producing a car that could be marketed to the middle class. Up until this point the average car produced cost around $2,000, which exceeded the price range of most Americans. Ford saw the middle class as an economic opportunity, a chance to create more costumers while still manufacturing the same product. His decision was not based exclusively on the lucrative market of the middle class though, but also on his humanitarian belief that citizens deserved the opportunity to purchase a car, as it would allow them to “enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces." Not surprisingly, when Ford created the Model T the working class flooded factories with orders, in turn, causing the number of Model T’s produced per year to double, from 18,644 to 78,440 in just two years . Ford was not satisfied with this growth as he still aimed to lower the cost of the car even more to further its availability. In order to do so Ford planned to maximize efficiency.
Henry Ford had always demonstrated a keen interest in increased efficiency, previously though, he had not incorporated new technology. When building the predecessor to the Model T, the Model N, Ford had his workers line the parts up along the floor and dragged the car along the line as each part was applied . Not surprisingly these methods did not hold as the Model T became increasingly popular. During this time Frederick Taylor was becoming more and more popular to the point where Ford heard about his ideas of scientific management. Taylorism was known as the stopwatch and clipboard approach, meaning that Frederick Taylor was constantly testing different styles of building for each worker unt...
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In The Flivver King, written by Upton Sinclair, Henry Ford started his own manufacturing in the back cottage on Bagley Street in the city of Detroit. The young inventor began to tinker and to make improvements to his new invention of the horseless carriage. Once he finally gained confidence to take it out for the public to see, the people were unsure if it was a joke or a step in civilization (8). Ford decided to look at the matter from an entirely different angle- the horseless carriage as a useful article for everybody instead of as a toy for the rich (10). Henry Ford’s Model T helped him to accomplish economies of scale because he took the steps to use a standardized model, use the assembly line, and revolutionize mass production.
The investors wanted a new model that was more reliable, but Ford wanted work out the problems on his first car before he created a new one. The car the investors wanted was a luxury that they can sell the rich people and Henry was not building cars the rich, but for the poor. While the investors waited for a new car he experimented for better solutions with the investor money. The investors didn 't like the fact that Henry was experimenting instead building a new car so they stopped writing the check. Henry Ford didn 't like the way his investors controlled him on the way he did things so he decided to not have rich people tell what to do at his shop. He told himself that for now on his shop will be his shop. He did not like the rich people that backed him because thought of the rich as jerks. While he was experimenting in the background during his first company he was working on a race car. The car that built twenty-eight horsepower and he beat the Alexander Winton with an engine with about three times the amount of horsepower he had. The funny thing is that he had no experience racing at all in the first Detroit
Ford was able to make a reliable and inexpensive automobile primarily because of his introduction of the innovative moving assembly line into the process of industrial manufacturing. The assembly line is a system for carrying an item that is being manufactured past a series of stationary workers who each assemble a particular portion of the finished product.
After the Ford Motor Company was founded, they began assembling cars in July 1903 at a plant on Mack Avenue, Detriot. It was not until five years later, in 1908, when the famed Model T was introduced. The constant growth in demand for this vehicle was the reason that Ford developed a mass-production method in order to create what we now know as economies of scale, where in producing
Henry Ford was the pioneer of the American automobile industry. He was born in 1863 near Dearborn, Michigan. Forty years later he started Ford Motor Company with the help of Thomas Edison. In 1908, Henry Ford forever changed the world with his Model T. Ford was known as a revolutionary person for not only making the automobile inexpensive but also for teaching workers proper skills and paying them steady wages. (Henry Ford Bio, 1) Only a mere six years later, Ford changed the world again with his invention of the moving assembly line in 1914. With the modern assembly line he was now able to mass produce his Model T. Nearly everything mass produced in the world is assembled on an assembly line thanks to Ford’s 100 year old idea. Not only did Ford make life easier for civilians by giving them affordable access to
In the 1920’s the United States economy was booming, and a famous man by the man of Henry Ford came along and had an industry changing idea. He set up the first production line style for producing automobiles. Each assembly line worker had one or two specific tasks to complete on the cars that came through. The process began with a skeleton on the car, and as it went down the line from worker to worker it slowly gained more and more pieces finishing the automobile completely...
Henry Ford is responsible for “perhaps the most revolutionary development in industrial history.” (Watts 2005,
This radical idea of the automobile permeated throughout America with most, if not all credit renowned to Henry Ford. Observed as a technological mastermind, Ford commenced experiments involving machinery from the time he was adolescent to launching his career working at the Edison Illuminating Company. He examined internal combustion engines and gasoline buggy ideas eventually resulting in removing himself from Edison’s company and his introduction in the emerging automobile industry. Following in 1903, he established the Ford Motor Company, which expeditiously became a leader in the automotive industry and would gain extensive wealth within only a few decades. While other manufacturers strove to produce automobiles to be extravagant and luxurious predominantly for the wealthy, he immensely focused on efficient mass production of durable, affordable vehicles for the expanding middle-class market.
Meryl, Davids. “Henry Ford (1863-1947): Loving the Line.” The Journal of Business Strategy 20.5 (1999): 29.
He received investments from all over to help form the Henry Ford Company in 1899. Ford’s father was proud to see his son’s name on automobiles, but was frustrated when Ford needed to constantly improve the efficiency. Ford left his namesake company in 1902 for financial reasons. After he left, it changed names to the Cadillac Motor Car Company. Later that year, Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. A month after the company was formed, the Ford Model A was built at the Ford Motor Plant in Detroit. Only a couple of these cars were able to be made every day, so sales were slow. There were only about 2 to 3 workers to assemble these cars. But Ford was motivated to create an efficient and consumer friendly automobile. These innovations resulted in the Ford Model T. The Model T was a great liftoff for Ford and his company, and as a result, he practiced techniques of mass production the would change American Industry, including using large production plants. The mass production technique made it easier for people to assemble cars and the rate of producing these cars were much quicker. It was also a cheaper way to produce automobiles, and in 1914, Ford was able to raise the daily wage to 5 dollars. Production skyrocketed for the Model T and by 1918, half of America had purchased these inexpensive and readily available cars. In 1919, Ford made his son Edsel as the president of the company, but Ford still kept control of the company’s day to day operations. That same year, Ford stopped making the Model T and invented the New and improved Model A , which had better horsepower and brakes, and better overall improvements. By this time, Ford had sold 15 million Model T’s and had opened plants that manufactured the Model
"The Automobile." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 2: 1910-1919. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
Ford’s concept of an assembly line sprang from the thought that a car could be produced much quicker if each person did one, single task. He applied this in his Highland Park plant, and cut down production time of one Model T to a fraction on the time. The carefully timed pace of a conveyer belt moving the parts along further speeded the process. With these new tactics, a factory could produce 40%-60% more cars per month. By late 1913 he had established assembly plants in Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, and Japan. At this point, the Ford Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of cars in the world.
In my essay we will take a look at Frederick Taylors principles of scientific management and his contribution to manufacturing and the influence he has had. We will use Ford as the organization as Fordism I closely linked to Taylorism and has been majorly influenced by it. The U.S. motor vehicle industry emerged at the end of the 19th century as a craft production system with a labor force that included skilled workers who had knowledge about mechanical design and the materials they were working with. After World War I, Henry Ford invented the mass production system (now known as Fordism). In his system, the product, the production process, and the tasks that each particular worker performed were standardized.
The Model T changed the ways of America in an immense way. Ford's Model T revolutionized manufacturing. To help build his Model T more efficiently and with less money he used the assembly line. "By 1914, Ford and his engineers had installed a belt-driven movable production line that took the work to the worker, and then carried that man's work to another worker, and so, until a shining Model T rolled off the line. It was continuous flow production. No one had ever done this before.
The assembly line that Henry Ford built was probably the first automated assembly line. It was certainly Ford's first assembly line was one of the most sophisticated and successful examples ever. So Henry Ford wanted to build a car that everybody could afford not just the rich