Henry

Ford
Ibrahim wasef

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Henry Ford was the founder of Ford Motor Company and the major sponsor for
assembly line technique of mass production. He is also known as captain of industry. He was
born on July 30th 1863 in greens land township, Michigan, United States. He was born in a family
of farmers who originate from England and Ireland.

By introducing the moving assembly line, Henry Ford was hugely influential in changing the
way that we manufacture not only cars but all types of goods. His innovations in the structure of
work also contributed to the post-World War II rise of the American middle class, changing the
economic landscape of the country. April 6, 2022

His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to one hour and 33
minutes.

He and his team looked at other industries and found four principles that would further their goal:
interchangeable parts, continuous flow, division of labor, and reducing wasted effort.
Using interchangeable parts meant making the individual pieces of the car the same every time.

Henry Ford was one of the most influential industrialists in history, ushered in the era of
mass-production at the turn of the century, making the automobile available to the middle and
working classes. In doing so, he shaped the culture of America forever.

In January 1914, Henry Ford started paying his auto workers a remarkable $5 a day. Doubling
the average wage helped ensure a stable workforce and likely boosted sales since the workers
could now afford to buy the cars they were making. It laid the foundation for an economy driven
by consumer demand

At age of 15 ford used to dismantled and reassemble the dozens of time pieces of his friends and
neighbors. In 1879, ford worked as an apprentice machinist with James F. Flower and Bros in
Detroit. In 1882, ford returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm and became adept at
operating the Westinghouse portable steam engines. Ford was hired to Westinghouse to serve
their steam engines. Ford married Clara Jane Bryant on April 11th, 1888. At that moment he
used to support himself to quit farming and to run a sawmill. Detroit Automobile Company opened
with ford as super indent for change of production in 1899.
Henry Ford was determined to build a simple, reliable and affordable car; a car the average
American worker could afford. Out of this determination came the Model T and the assembly line
- two innovations that revolutionized American society and molded the world we live in today.

Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, that accolade goes to Karl Benz of Germany in 1885.
No, what Henry Ford did almost 20 years later was create a strategy that would revolutionize the
automobile industry as we know it. Henry Ford was an engineer by trade and his first attempt at
building an automobile was in 1899 when he formed the Detroit Automobile Company with
William H. Murphy. The concept was great, but the strategy that the company had did not layout
the fact that they could not build the automobile fast enough and so this venture lasted less than
a year. Of course, this is the story of many great innovators, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try
again”. So, Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903 in an old wagon factory warehouse.
His first official car was called the Model “A” and was produced in 1903. Within one year, Ford
had produced over 500 Model “A” cars, quite an accomplishment for someone who had already
failed once. Ford had a vision that he laid out into a very effective strategy, build an automobile
that everyone can afford, therefore increasing your demand for your product. Four years later in
1904, Ford released the Model “T” which was dubbed the “working man’s car” and it was a huge
success. Unfortunately, Ford’s strategy had worked in producing a car for the common man, the
problem with his initial strategy was that he didn’t plan for how he was going to keep up with he
increased demand. This failure in strategy led to Ford having to stop taking orders for the Model
“T”, as he could not keep up with production. As with his previous failures, Ford didn’t see this as
failure, but an opportunity to improve and change his strategy.

Various business approaches followed by Henry Ford

The main moto of Henry Ford was to build a car which will be low in price that no man will unable
to own one. His philosophy was one of economic independence for United States. Ford’s mass
production technique plays a prominent role in his attempts of success.

Ford introduced model T which turned his dream into reality. His vision of mass production
produced the first affordable and reliable vehicle for the masses and became a modern industrial
revolution.

Ford introduced a new plan to build a race car by identifying racing as a way to spread the name
about his cars and his company’s name. Model A is the car where 500 cars had sold.
In 1911, he opened ford assembly plants in Canada and Britain and became the biggest
automotive producer in short time period. In 1912 ford joined to cooperate with Giovanni Agnelli
of Fiat to launch the first Italian automotive parts. His view of international trade is essential for
world made ford to open automotive plants in India, Australia, and France. In that context he
maintained successful dealerships on six continents. He made an agreement to provide technical
aid over nine years with soviets in building the first Soviet automobile plant.

In 1913 Ford truly found his calling, the “Father of Mass Production”. Ford figured that if you
trained an employee to do one task and they did that task all day, then then several employees
doing one task would be more efficient, and the Model “T” could be produced faster and for less.
This theory held true in the fact that it took 12 and half hours to produce a Model “T” the old way,
now it took a mere 93 minutes! (Entrepeneur, 2019) As you can see, if Henry Ford would have
applied the 3 tests to winning strategy early on, he would realized that his strategy was not very
well laid out. The first test, the “Good Fit Test” would have illustrated that a good idea is only that
if you can’t deliver the finished product to keep up with demand. Of course, by trial he learned
this lesson.

The second test, the “Competitive Advantage Test”, Ford did pass. He was able to provide an
automobile that others could not produce for less and was able claim the market for which he
sought, the average American driving his automobile. The third test, the “Performance Test”, was
somewhat passed, but has history tells us, Ford stayed too complacent for too long. Ford had no
real competition for the “affordable” automobile until Chevrolet entered the market in 1911, and
really started mass production of the Chevrolet Series “D” in 1917 and 1918 with over 4000 cars
produced. Chevrolet started a new concept of producing a different model every year, whereas
Ford continued producing the Model “T”. Chevrolet realized that they could not compete with
Ford in production, so they adjusted their strategy to offer consumers the appearance of
“difference”. This slight change in competitive strategy was enough to give Chevrolet the edge
over Ford and would make Henry Ford re-think his own strategies. If you fast forward to modern
times, and look at the government bailouts to Detroit, you will see that Henry Ford’s Ford Motor
Company accepted no bailout, and as such was able to emerge as one of the strongest
American made automobile companies. Ford has changed its strategy many times over the
company’s history and has become the number producer of trucks in America
Ford’s setup a grand venture named The Rouge a factory itself a giant machine built at the bank
of rouge river and it was the largest industry complex of 1096 acers such an extent to produce its
own steel.

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This essay was made by: Ibrahim Wasef

Uni: GJU-SABE

Student id no.: 20191601043

Subject: Modern Foundations of Architecture

Under supervision of Dr. Rami Daher

References:
Wikipedia

My Life and Work Book by Henry Ford

Today and Tomorrow Book by Henry Ford