Henry Ford and the Advent of American Mass Production
Henry
Ford was perhaps the most influential entrepreneur of the early twentieth century.
Raised on a farm near Detroit, Michigan, Ford disliked farm work and went to
work as a machinist in his teens. In the 1870s, Ford began experimenting with
steam engines and by the mid-1880s was working on early internal combustion
engines. 1887 saw the completion of a four-cycle engine of his own design. This
was followed by a two-cylinder motor in 1890. Ford, in his autobiography, said
he completed his first automobile in 1892. It was powered by a two-cylinder,
four horsepower engine and could travel at speeds up to twenty miles per hour.
It rode on four bicycle wheels with rubber tires and was dubbed the “quadricycle.”
He eventually built three of these vehicles, each an improvement upon its
predecessor.
Ford
had gone to work for Thomas Edison’s Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit in
1891 as an engineer. He became chief engineer in 1893 and his work with powered
automobiles drew Edison’s personal interest. The famous inventor approved of
Ford’s work and encouraged him to continue his efforts. Ford’s work drew other
interested parties as well and, in 1899, he received capital investments from
several local businessmen and founded the Detroit Automobile Company. The
company was unsuccessful for several reasons, including poor quality, and it
folded in 1901.
Ford,
however, was not deterred, and he began building racecars. His success once
again attracted investors and the Henry Ford Company was founded with Ford
himself as the chief engineer. Disputes over control of the company led to Ford’s
resignation the next year, after which he returned to the world of racing. In
1902, he produced an eighty-horsepower car which won a local race and attracted
yet another investment group. After a series of ups and downs, which included an
association with John and Horace Dodge, the Ford Motor Company was founded on
June 16, 1903.
Ford quickly took another step
toward dominance in the automobile market when he built a new race car with
which he set the world land speed record, prompting a prominent race car driver
to take the vehicle, dubbed the “999,” on a nationwide tour, providing valuable
marketing exposure for the new company. By the end of the tour, the Ford brand
was known across the country.
An
often-overlooked event in the early stages of the Ford Motor Company was its
battle against the Selden patent. George Selden, a Pennsylvania patent lawyer
and amateur inventor, had developed a rudimentary internal combustion engine in
1878 and managed to secure a patent on it. He then sat on the patent for 25
years waiting for the technology to develop by which such engines could be
profitably manufactured. Selden asserted a wide-ranging claim on internal
combustion engines designed for automobiles, but companies such as Ford
disputed his claim and flouted the patent’s authority. Selden sued and, in
1903, named Ford Motor Company as the defendant to test his claim.
Ford
was delighted, as he had offered $1,000.00 to Selden’s attorneys if they would
sue him since he believed the publicity would prove a boon to his business. Ford
continued production during the legal process and sales indeed boomed. In the
end, Ford prevailed in court and Selden’s patent, at least to the extent he
claimed it, was not upheld. Henry Ford became a hero against monopoly and his
victory opened the door for widespread automobile manufacturing in the United
States, as well as imports from Europe.
Despite
his success in racing, Henry Ford claimed that he never had much interest in
the sport and turned his attention to producing a quality vehicle at an
affordable price. The result was the legendary Model T, which debuted in 1908.
At a price of $825.00, it was priced within the reach of most Americans and the
price fell annually for the next several years. By 1916, the price had dropped
to $360.00 while Ford reaped record profits from nationwide sales.
The
reasons behind the price reduction and the profit increases were rooted in Ford’s
genius for mass production and his understanding of human motivation. Ford is
often credited with the development of the assembly line, though, in truth, he
perfected an idea that had been around for some time. Intensive experimentation
with division of labor, work speed and conditions, and standardization of parts
and processes allowed Ford to reduce the assembly time for a Model T from five
hours to one and a half. The reduction of the labor cost to assemble a car was
passed on to the consumer.
Then,
in 1914, Ford shocked the industry and the nation by introducing profit sharing
with his work force and increasing the daily pay of the lowest paid workers
from $2.34 to $5.00. While his workers were overjoyed, many were alarmed,
fearing that workers nationwide would demand a similar increase and run many
companies out of business. Ford also announced an expansion of his workforce by
five thousand men, causing near riots as prospective employees from across the
country descended on Detroit looking for work at the Ford factory. Some
wondered if Ford could sustain such a thing, but Ford himself later said that the
five-dollar day was “one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.”
The
five-dollar day raised morale, reduced absenteeism, and increased efficiency.
Combined with the by-now all-but-perfected assembly line, production took off
and sales increased by as much as fifty percent. The system, for all its
achievements, however, did not lack its critics. Ford was castigated for the
dehumanizing aspect of assembly line work and the fact that it had no use for
craftsmen or experience. Ford taught their employees to do one job over and
over with no variety. For their part, the majority of Ford workers had no such
reservations. Henry Ford had set out to build an automobile that his own
employees could afford, and he succeeded.
In
1927, the long production run of the Model T came to an end. Sales were
suffering as newer models rolled off the lines of General Motors, prompting
Ford to finally give in and evolve, a decision he put off as long as he could. The
Model T was succeeded by the popular Model A, a modern vehicle available in
several configurations which carried Ford into the 1930s, when it led the way
with new designs such as the flathead V8 engine.
Henry
Ford and the Ford Motor Company were at the forefront of automobile and
industrial innovation for the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Perhaps the most famous accolade came in a personal letter to Ford from Clyde
Barrow during his and Bonnie Parker’s famous 1934 crime spree:
Dear Sir:-
While I still have got breath in my lungs I will tell
you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get
away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble the Ford has got
ever (sic) other car skinned and even if my business hasn’t been strickly (sic)
legal it don’t hurt enything (sic) to tell you what a fine car you got in the
V8.
Yours truly
Clyde Champion Barrow
Some claim the letter is a hoax, but no one has been
able to demonstrate that for certain, so I choose to believe it’s genuine.
Sources:
Greenleaf, William, and David L. Lewis, Monopoly on
Wheels: Henry Ford and the
Selden Automobile Patent. Detroit: Wayne
State University Press, 2011. ProQuest
Ebook Central - Detail page (liberty.edu).
Ford. Letter
from Clyde Barrow to Henry Ford Praising the Ford V-8 Car, 1934 - The Henry
Ford.
Levinson, William A.,
et al. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry
Ford's Universal Code for
World-Class Success, Productivity Press, 2013. ProQuest
Ebook Central - Detail page (liberty.edu).
New York Times, “Henry Ford
Explains Why He Gives Away $10,000,000.” New York
Smith, Sherwin D., “50 years Ago – Henry Ford Thought
of a Way to Assemble a Cut in
1 ½ Hours, Instead of Over 5.” New York Times
February 16, 1964. 50
Years Ago --: Henry Ford thought of a way to assemble a cut in 1 1/2 hours,
instead of over 5. - ProQuest.
Comments
Post a Comment