Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Introduction

Henry Ford (30.7. 1863 – 7.4. 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and the inventor of the famous T Ford which gave a start of the American car industry. He also created the whole assembly line system used in mass production to reduce costs and save time. This took the industrial production into a whole different level making production more efficient. He was one of the most influential and richest people of his time. He was credited for “Fordism”, which means the assembly line production of automobiles at a reasonable price and high salary for his workers. He also gained many patents in the USA during his career.

Early years

Henry Ford was born in July 30 1863 in Michigan being the first child of the six-child family. He grew up in a wealthy family spending his days at school and doing farm chores in the evening. He showed a great interest for mechanics at an early age. Ford spend his teen age working as an apprentice machinist, but still contributing to farm work in his father’s farm. Henry Ford’s father wished he would take over the farm after him, but a passion for mechanics drove young Henry Ford into something else.

Ford became an engineer in Edison Illuminating Company where he devoted his time to personal experiments such as gasoline engines. These experiments led to a “first drat” of a T Ford, Ford Quadricycle which he wanted to improve. In 1891 Henry Ford was introduced to Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, who seemed to like Ford’s work. Edison approved the experiments Ford was doing with the automobiles and encouraged him to continue with it. This was a starting point Ford’s career as a car designer.

Ford had many companies with different people where he created and designed cars. However, Henry Ford was never satisfied because he wanted to develop an inexpensive and usable car for common people which did not interest the people he was working with. In 1903, Ford Motor Company was established whit Henry Ford as a vice-president and chief engineer. At first, the company produced only a small amount of cars with a very slow pace.

With a new process the complicated tasks were broken down in many smaller and simpler ones, which were suitable of unskilled labor. The most significant innovation in the context of Fordism had been the introduction of a moving assembly line which created a mass production as a result.

Assembly line production

Ford invented the moving assembly line in 1913. The main idea the main idea was that the workers stayed still while the assembly line was moving. Components would move in front of a worker who performed the same task with each component. Everything was scheduled very tightly in order to make everything work as smoothly as possible. The moving assembly line was a totally new idea in the industry. The company Ford gained a competitive advantage since it was able to produce good quality cars fast. Ford Motor Company quickly became the biggest car manufacturer in the whole world.

Henry Ford wanted to take the idea of mass production a little bit further. Between 1910 and 1920 the company began the constructions of the world’s largest manufacturing plant. This area would include all the elements needed for the automobile