Thursday, August 18, 2011

Research Paper on Henry Ford

Research Paper on Henry Ford

Henry Ford was born in Michigan, Dearborn on July 30, 1863. From a young age he had preferred working with machinery and mechanics. At 16, he started working for Detroit Edison company, advancing from machine - shop apprentice to chief engineer within a few years.

It was at this time in which he began his experiments with the internal combustion engine and in 1903 he left Detroit Edison and set up his own company- The Motor Ford Company. At this time, cars were expensive and only the rich could afford them. The goal of Ford was to " build a car for the multitude." Ford's first step was to design a model T which was a simple, dependable, sturdy car. It offered no factory options- not even color. The Model T was cheaper than other cars, but not cheap enough for the "multitude". He knew that he had to find a more efficient way to produce the model T in order to lower the price.

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Ford and his team went on many excursions to other industries hoping to find ideas, and in their search they found four basic principles that would further their goal: interchangeable parts, continuous flow, division of labor and reducing wasted effort. His greatest inspiration came from the meat-packaging houses and the mill-grain conveyor belt. Ford already used interchangeable parts, all he needed to do was fine-tune his cutting tools and machines. And once the machines were adjusted low skilled workers could operate them, replacing the highly skilled workers who had formerly made the who had made the parts by hand before.

"We hire a man, not his history."

To improve the flow of work, tasks needed to be done consecutively, with minimum time spent in set-up. He then split the assembly line of the Model T into 84 parts. He then used the conveyor belt to transport car parts from station to station, eliminating the excess time it took transporting each item.

Putting those 4 principles into play caused Ford to produce cars at record breaking speeds. This meant that Ford could lower prices, making the first affordable car. Ford was also able to pay his workers five dollars a day, twice the amount of competing companies, all while decreasing their work hours. This made his workers more sufficient and also made them potential buyers.

The Model T also eliminated restrictions on travel, allowing people to live farther away from their place of employment. This enabled people to live in the suburbs which grew increasingly in the 1920's.

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