HENRY FORD

It was a simpler time when rail was the only means of resource and mass mobilization. A car was
a sole property of the rich, but was every common mans dream to own one. Henry Ford took the
responsibility upon himself to make this dream come true. Born on July 30, 1963 to William
Ford and Mary Ford, a family of humble farmers, Henry Ford went on to change American lives
and the ripples of which are felt even today all around the world.
FORD MOTOR COMPANY
In 1899, Henry Ford established the Detroit Automobile Company, which was his first attempt
to start car manufacturing in Detroit, but was shut down soon as the investors pulled the plug on
his experiments. Henry Ford Company was setup in 1901, which later on became Cadillac Motor
Company after Henry Ford opted to depart in 1902. Henry Ford and Alexander Malcomson
along with a group of other investors, which included the Dodge brothers, established the Ford
Motor Company on June 16, 1903, Detroit, Michigan, with a capital of $28,000 but Ford and
Malcolm held the controlling share of 51%. In its early years, the company produced a range of
vehicles designated, chronologically, from the Ford model A to Model S(1907). Even though
these were competitive enough in terms performance and price, but was not in line with ford
philosophy of creating a middle class car. The Model T, which was launched in 1908, was a
game changer for the company and the company sold 15 million units between 1908 -27, before
it was discontinued. The century old company has survived through the WW I , the Great
Depression in 1929, WWII and the most recent Financial Crisis in 2007, when it almost touched
the lines of bankruptcy, but has managed to enter the profit zone again and currently stands as the
fifth largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

Struggle and Success

In the 19th century, transportation in America was a huge burden especially for a farmer who
lived in isolation. Ford was exposed to and had experienced these problems. He had a longing to
create a reliable horseless carriage and he knew, if he could, he would change the average
American lives. He worked as machinist and chief engineer in Thomas Edisons electrical
company but his interests lied elsewhere. Between 1989 and 1902 Ford setup two companies but
failed to keep it stable. He blamed the investors for his failures as they were only interested in
profits and never shared his vision. In 1903, he setup Ford Motors Company but could not keep
the investors away like he wanted. The first in line was a simple car, powered by 8hp engine. The
company started making profits straight away. Company came up with many model named
chronologically from Model A. In 1908, Model T was launched and the response was
overwhelming. The car was simple to drive, easy and cheap to repair. It was affordably priced at
$825(USD 21000 inflation adjusted) and the prices went down by more than 50 percent after an
assembly line was introduced.
Assembly line
The Model T got engrained into the American lives and the production was nowhere close to the
demand. Assembling a car was the most time consuming task in the process. Henry was inspired
by the meat industry where the cadaver moved along a chain, while the worker worked on it
when he got his turn. The average time required to assemble a car was twelve and half hours.
When Henry introduced this system in 1913, the time was reduced to ninety three minutes,
which eventually helped him achieve his coveted goal of producing 1000 cars in a day. This was
the first in the world and became so crucial that a company without one just could not survive.

An assembly line is a system where a worker had to do the same monotonous job over and over
again, rather than one person doing different works involved in assembling a car. Many found it
exhausting and quit their jobs. Retaining a trained worker was becoming a bigger problem now.
The five dollar wage(1913)
Henry went public with his five dollar per day plan, though his broad members vehemently
opposed it. He knew, this would provide workers the power to purchase, who would come back
to buy his product, as Model T was more than just mean of transport. With this pay an assembly
line worker would be in a position buy one in four months. The attrition rate came down quickly.
He had workers from more than fifty different countries, speaking more than 100 different
languages, working in his Detroit plant. He thought, there was need for social unification and a
standard was to be maintained in their style of living. He made them learn English and
maintained sociological group investigating into the lives of his employees. The Five dollar wage
was also used to Americanize them. The idealist in him brings the social engineer out of him.
The period of great depression
The depression hurt all companies, across all industries greatly and Ford was no exception. A
great number of them were laid off. Russia was the only major country that was not affected by
depression and he took the business there. He started setting up an assembly line in 1929 and the
production started in 1931.
A pioneer machinist turned entrepreneur, Henry Ford saw both extremes of life, but faced them
with unfettered confidence and grace. All though he was an anarchist at heart, he was thoughtful
enough to keep the companys interests ahead of his. A son of a farmer went on to become one of
the most influential people of America.