Piquette Ford Plant Case Study

The Piquette Ford Plant was the first Ford factory specifically built for assembly. The building opened in 1903 and sold in 1911.In this factory, parts were shipped in from nearby plants, for example engines and transmissions came from the Dodge Mack Avenue Plant, and assembled by skilled workers. This building represents a transition from a labor force dominated by skilled craftsmen to a labor force consisting of unskilled workers working on an assembly line. I will argue that the site makes a bad illustration of where we are going, instead we are heading towards Post-Fordism. Henry Ford was a designer who saw the assembly line and mass production as the future of industry. He wanted to decrease cost and increase speed of production to make

The new plant featured an assembly line which allowed Henry ford to achieve his goal of making cars widely available. The assembly line also created a BKE for the public, “To the thousands of visitors who each month pass through the Ford factory, one of the most popular operations is the final assembly line… The observer sees the car on the long elevated track from the rear axle to the finished chassis which leaves the assembly under its own power” (“FINAL ASSEMBLY AT FORD FACTORY” D2). When visiting the plant, and discussing with my group members I learned that there were around 500 startup automotive companies in Detroit in the early 20th Century, but only 3 are still in existence (Group Collaboration). The Ford Motor Company managed to stay in business because of mass production. Mass production can also be seen in the movie industry with the invention of movies with sound. “By January 1930, all

Some characteristics of Post-Fordism are the ability for the consumer to customize products and the outsourcing of jobs, which both lead to less unskilled jobs in the United States. The first factor which led to Post-Fordism was an increase in the number of unskilled workers due to the addition of more African Americans and women into the labor force. In Arc of Justice, Boyle quotes Darrow saying, “I think we’re trying the race question and nothing else”. Although, there was still segregation and racism in Detroit, when the jury decided the eleven defendants were not guilty, it was a victory against racism. In 1941, Ford used African Americans as strikebreakers, which was another victory against racism (Martelle 149). The use of African Americans as strikebreakers helped increase the number of African Americans in the labor force. The number of women in the labor force also increased during this time. Between 1940 and 1950, the percentage of white women in the labor force increased from 26.7 to 31.2 and the percentage of African American women in the labor force increased from 46.5 to 49.0 (Dau-Schmidt 100). The labor force participation rate of women has been steadily increasing since 1940 (Dau-Schmidt 100). Up until 1950, there constant cumulative causation, caused by the invention of the automobile and the World Wars, which increased the demand for mass production of products such as cars or