Henry Ford. Born July 30, 1863 - died April 7, 1947. American industrialist, owner of car factories around the world, inventor, author of 161 US patents.
Ford's slogan is "a car for everyone." His factory produced the cheapest cars at the beginning of the automotive era. The Ford Motor Company still exists today.
Henry Ford is also known for pioneering the use of an industrial conveyor belt for the in-line production of automobiles. Contrary to popular misconception, the conveyor was used before, including for mass production. However, Henry Ford was the first to "put on the conveyor" a technically complex product, which requires technical support throughout its entire service life, a product - a car. Ford's book "My Life, My Achievements" is a classic work on the scientific organization of labor.
In 1924, the book "My Life, My Achievements" was published in the USSR. This book became the source of such a complex political and economic phenomenon as Fordism.
Born into a family of immigrants from Ireland, who lived on a farm in the vicinity of Detroit. When he turned 16, he ran away from home and went to work in Detroit.
In 1891-1899 he served as a mechanical engineer and later as chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1893, in his spare time, he designed his first car.
From 1899 to 1902 he was a co-owner of the Detroit Automobile Company, but due to disagreements with the other owners of the company, he left it and in 1903 founded the Ford Motor Company, which originally produced cars under the Ford A.
Ford Motor Company faced competition from a syndicate of auto makers, which claimed a monopoly in this area.
In 1879, JB Selden patented a design for an automobile that was not built; it contained only a description of the basic principles. The very first patent infringement lawsuit he won prompted the owners of a number of automobile companies to acquire the appropriate licenses and create an "association of legitimate manufacturers."
The lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company, initiated by Selden, lasted from 1903 to 1911. The Legal Manufacturers threatened to bring the buyers of Ford cars to court. But he acted courageously, publicly promising his customers "help and protection", although the financial capabilities of the "legitimate manufacturers" far exceeded his own. In 1909, Ford lost the trial, but after a review of the case, the court ruled that none of the automakers had infringed Selden's rights because they were using a different engine design. The monopoly merger immediately disintegrated, and Henry gained a reputation as a fighter for the interests of consumers.
The company's greatest success came with the launch of the Ford T model in 1908.
In 1910, Ford built and launched the most modern plant in the automotive industry, the well-lit and well-ventilated Highland Park. On it, in April 1913, the first experiment on the use of an assembly line began. The first assembly unit assembled on the conveyor was a generator. The principles tested when assembling the generator were applied to the entire engine as a whole. One worker made the engine in 9 hours 54 minutes. When the assembly was divided into 84 operations, performed by 84 workers, the engine assembly time was reduced by more than 40 minutes. With the old production method, when the car was assembled in one place, it took 12 hours 28 minutes of working time to assemble the chassis. A moving platform was installed and the various parts of the chassis were supplied either with hooks suspended from chains or on small motorized carts. The production time for the chassis has been cut by more than half.
A year later (in 1914), the company raised the height of the assembly line to the waist. After that, two conveyors were not slow to appear - one for tall and one for short. The experiments extended to the entire production process as a whole. After a few months on the assembly line, the time required to produce the Model T was reduced from 12 hours to two or less.
In order to implement strict control, Ford created a full production cycle: from ore mining and metal smelting to the production of a finished car. In 1914, he introduced the highest minimum wage in the United States - $ 5 a day, allowed workers to participate in the company's profits, built an exemplary working village, but until 1941 did not allow the creation of trade unions in his factories.
In 1914, the corporation's factories began to work around the clock in three shifts of 8 hours, instead of two shifts of 9 hours, which made it possible to provide additional work for several thousand people. "Increased salary" of $ 5 was not guaranteed to everyone: the worker had to spend his salary reasonably, on the maintenance of his family, but if he spent money on drink, he was fired. These rules persisted in the corporation until the Great Depression.
At the beginning of the First World War, Ford, with a group of pacifists, on his own initiative sailed to Europe on the Oscar-2 ship as an envoy of peace, convincing everyone to end the war as soon as possible. He was brutally ridiculed by European newspapers and returned to the United States.
However, in the spring of 1917, when America entered the war on the side of the Entente, Ford changed his views. Ford factories began to carry out military orders. In addition to cars, the production of gas masks, helmets, cylinders for Liberty aircraft engines, and at the very end of the war, light tanks and even submarines, was launched. At the same time, Ford said that he was not going to profit from military orders and would return the profits he received to the state. And although there is no confirmation that this promise was fulfilled by Ford, it was approved by the American public.
In 1925, Ford created his own airline, later named Ford Airways. In addition, Ford began to subsidize the firm of William Stout, and in August 1925 he bought it and began to manufacture airliners himself. The first product of his enterprise was the three-engine Ford 3-AT Air Pullman. The most successful was the Tin Goose Ford Trimotor, a passenger aircraft, a three-engined all-metal monoplane mass-produced in 1927-1933 by Henry Ford's Ford Airplane Company. A total of 199 copies were produced. The Ford Trimotor was in service until 1989.
In 1928, Ford was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Benjamin Franklin Institute for revolutionary achievement in the automotive industry and industrial leadership.
He remained the head of the company until the 1930s, when, due to disagreements with the unions and partners, he transferred the business to his son Edsel, but after his death in 1943 he returned to the post of head of the company.
In 1945, Henry Ford finally transferred the management of the company to his grandson, Henry Ford II.
Henry Ford family:
Father - William Ford (1826-1905)
Mother - Marie Lithogot (O'Hern) Ford (~ 1839-1876)
John Ford (~ 1865-1927)
William Ford (1871-1917)
Robert Ford (1873-1934)
Margaret Ford (1867-1868)
Jane Ford (~ 1868-1945)
Wife - Clara Jane Ford (nee Bryant), (1866-1950).
The only son is Edsel Bryant Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919 to 1943.
The grandson also had the name Henry Ford. To distinguish him from his grandfather, he is called Henry Ford II.
The current chairman of the board of directors of the Ford Motor Company is Henry Ford's great-grandson, William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. (b. 1957).
Henry Ford's anti-Semitism and Nazi support:
In 1918, Ford acquired the newspaper The Dearborn Independent, which had published anti-Semitic articles since May 22, 1920, as well as the full text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In November 1920, a selection of articles from the Dearborn Independent was published as a separate book called International Jewry, which was later used extensively by Nazi propaganda.
On January 16, 1921, 119 prominent Americans, including 3 presidents, 9 secretaries of state, 1 cardinal, and many other US statesmen and public figures, published an open letter condemning Ford's anti-Semitism.
In 1927, Ford sent a letter to the American press admitting his mistakes.
Henry Ford provided serious financial support to the NSDAP, his portrait hung in the Munich residence of Hitler. Ford was the only American whom Hitler admired in his book, My Struggle. Annette Anton of Detroit News interviewed Hitler in 1931 and noted a portrait of Henry Ford over his desk. “I consider Henry Ford as my inspiration,” Hitler said of the American auto mogul.
Since 1940, the Ford plant, located in Poissy in the German-occupied French territory, began to produce aircraft engines, trucks and cars, which entered service with the Wehrmacht. During interrogation in 1946, Nazi activist Karl Krauch, who worked in the management of a branch of a Ford enterprise in Germany during the war, said that due to the fact that Ford collaborated with the Nazi regime, "his enterprises were not confiscated."
The influence of Ford and his book on the German National Socialists is explored by Neil Baldwin in Henry Ford and the Jews: The Conveyor Belt of Hate. Baldwin points out that Ford's publications were a major source of influence on young Nazis in Germany. The author of the book "Henry Ford and the Jews" Albert Lee has a similar opinion.
Ford cooperation with the USSR:
The first serial Soviet tractor - "Fordson-Putilovets" (1923) - reworked for production at the Putilov plant and operation in the USSR Fordson tractor brand "Fordson"; the construction of the Gorky Automobile Plant (1929-1932), the reconstruction of the Moscow AMO plant during the first five-year plan, personnel training for both plants were carried out with the support of Ford Motors specialists on the basis of an agreement concluded between the Government of the USSR and the Ford firm.
Henry Ford - inventor, founder of the automobile concern "Ford Motor Company", modernizer of the line-conveyor production. A talented and successful leader, the first to raise the minimum wage for workers, to reduce the working day to eight hours, and the week to five days.
On July 30, 1863, Henry's first child was born to the family of the farmer William Ford. From childhood, he showed no interest in his father's work. He saw that the forces spent on performing certain operations sometimes do not justify themselves, and the introduction of mechanisms will facilitate the work of his loved ones.
Henry was educated in elementary church school, but he never felt guilty about writing with errors. His developed lively mind more than compensated for this deficiency.
At the age of twelve, the boy became obsessed with the idea of creating a self-propelled moving mechanism, after he saw a locomobile, "rushing" at a speed of six kilometers per hour. And although relatives condemned his hobby, young Ford enters the workshop as an apprentice mechanic.
Returning home four years later, he does not give up his ideas and continues to work on his inventions. Already in 1887, Henry proposes to his farm daughter Clara Bryant, with whom he then happily lived all his life. This woman has always supported and inspired the inventor, even in those moments in history when everyone else considered his ideas to be insane. In 1991, Henry and Clara Ford gave birth to a son, whom they named Edsed.
Foundation of the company
The gasoline thresher was the first invention to take Ford seriously. Thomas Edison acquires a patent from him and offers the position of chief engineer in his company. But even this prestigious position does not distract Henry from the idea of \ u200b \ u200bmaking a car that would be available to almost everyone in the country.
Soon, the company's management strongly advises the young specialist to stop thinking about "extraneous things." Then Ford quit and in 1899 became one of the co-owners of the Detroit Automobile Company. However, after three years he leaves it, not finding support for his idea from colleagues.
Soon, Ford independently produced its first "Fordmobile", which interested no one. But a brilliant marketing ploy soon saves the day. Henry himself drives his car and participates in nationwide races, achieving success. The first place became the best advertisement, and orders were poured from all directions.
In 1903, thanks to investors, the famous inventor opens his own company called the Ford Motor Company, with the help of which he fulfills his dream and creates a public car.
In 1908, the Ford-T was born, distinguished by reliability, convenience and an affordable price of only $ 850. Competitors go into the shadows, and Ford's products are firmly established in leading positions.
Major innovative transformations
Henry Ford can be called a revolutionary in the transformations implemented in his production. The main achievements that have led to success include:
- Conveyor production. The conveyor does not belong to the number of Ford inventions, he only improved and applied it in the assembly of complex mechanisms. But this opened up huge prospects for increasing labor productivity and made it possible to speed up the entire process of producing machines.
- Raising the minimum wage for workers to five dollars a day. This attracted many employees to his company, who subsequently treasured their jobs. In addition, they, gradually accumulating the required amount, could purchase cars from their company.
- Introduction of an eight-hour shift. Thanks to this innovation, the company began to work in three shifts, thereby providing new jobs.
- Ford was the first to legalize the six-day work week, allowing employees to rest on their day off.
- Payment of vacation pay. Previously, vacation at enterprises was not paid, and often was not even provided.
Company difficulties and getting out of them
Soon, Ford buys out a controlling stake from investors with
howl the company and becomes its full owner. In addition, it acquires mines, mines and factories for the production of materials for the production of cars.
But competitors do not want to give up so easily, and in 1927 the company is on the verge of collapse. But it turned out to be beyond the strength of even such severe tests to break the will of Ford. In the same year, the world saw an improved model "Ford-A", which was a dizzying success among consumers, as it surpassed competitors' analogues in quality characteristics and spectacular appearance.
Henry Ford died in his homeland not far from Detroit at the age of 83. He survived the death of his only son and left his empire to his grandson Henry Ford II. His life was a vivid example of how the power of the human spirit and mind is capable of realizing the most fantastic and daring dreams, if you really believe in them with all your heart.
The topic of success stories of famous personalities of the world today worries most of the world's population. That is why the biography of Henry Ford, the inventor and author of 161 patents, the owner of car factories around the world, an American industrialist and a successful businessman, is of great interest.
The success story of this extraordinary personality is unique. Quotes from his famous book "My Life, My Achievements" have long since turned into catchphrases.
Childhood tycoon
Henry Ford was born in 1863 on July 30. His father - William Ford - was a Michigan farmer, an Irish emigrant. Mother's name was Marie Lithogoth, nee. In addition to Henry, the parents raised three sons: John, William and Robert - and two daughters: Margaret and Jane.
Such interesting facts from his childhood have come down to us: if a clockwork toy was presented to someone as a gift, the sisters and brothers vied with each other to shout not to give it into Henry's hands. And in fact, having fallen into the hands of a little prodigy, the toy was sure to be dismantled to the last screw. When reassembled, many parts turned out to be superfluous, but the toy worked no worse, and sometimes even better than the previous one.
From early childhood, the father taught his children to farm work. However, Henry did not like this bleak labor. And already during childhood, thoughts about its improvement, automation arose in his brain.
Having received a wristwatch as a gift from his father, the twelve-year-old boy quietly opened its lid with a knife and was shocked by the mechanism. Henry couldn’t resist and took the watch apart, then put it back together. In a future life, this first experience helped Henry earn his bread and pay for housing.
Youth and the beginning of the labor path
In the end, Henry Ford escaped from his parents to the city at night. At first, the teenager got a job at a plant that produces horse-drawn carriages. But his giftedness became a hindrance to career growth. The boy's ability to understand at a glance what the mechanism was malfunctioning aroused in other workers a feeling of envy. So very soon they survived young Henry Ford. The fugitive spent the next years of his life working at the Flower brothers' shipyard. In his free time, the young man was busy repairing watches, earning money to pay for a room and buy food.
Having learned that his son is living in difficult material terms, his father - William Ford - decided to "buy" him. He offered Henry in exchange for his dream of 40 acres of land. But according to the oral agreement, the word "car" should not escape the lips of a young Ford, even in a dream. There was no end-edge of joy for William when Henry agreed to return to his parental home! And how would my father know that this return was just a cunning move on the part of Henry, which he took for a temporary respite.
The marriage of the future owner of car factories
Henry Ford's chosen one was a modest girl from a farming family, Clara Bryant. During the years of her life in marriage, the wife constantly morally supported her beloved. Henry Ford, whose biography became a role model for many, constantly consulted with her, told her about his grandiose plans.
Ford's success story would not be complete if not to pay tribute to the influence on his fate of the wife. In the memoirs of Henry Ford there are quotes with which he thanked his wife for support in all his endeavors: “My wife believed in my success even more strongly than I did. She has always been like that. "
The birth of a son and the birth of the first car
And so in 1893, Henry Ford gave birth to two "brainchilds": the first-born son was born, and he finished assembling his first car. The wife's son was named Edsel, and the car was named "ATV".
In the same year, the inventor was hired by the Edison Company, which specialized in lighting Detroit, as an engineer. After 6 years, Henry becomes chief engineer at the Detroit auto company. But during these years, Ford's mind was preoccupied with the invention of the gasoline cart.
Finding Companions
The company's management decided to "return" the chief engineer to the ground: he was offered a leading position so that the inventor would forget about his new project. But it is not in the nature of Henry Ford to abandon his goal, although doubts overwhelmed him: all his savings were spent on making a trolley, and his family needed to be supported on something.
The wife’s statements that she would take any decision of her spouse for granted reinforced him in the decision he made: the inventor quit his job and started looking for wealthy partners who would buy his ideas. But for a long time his attempts were unsuccessful.
The success story of Ford the automaker began with the case when an almost desperate Henry decided to give a ride "with a breeze" to one of the local businessmen. It was then that a turning point occurred in the life of the inventor: Henry finally found a companion!
Thus was born the Detroit Automobile Company, which did not last long. Ford's statements on this matter are lessons learned. He did not consider it possible to complain or blame someone for failures. The main thing is to take advantage, even if you need to extract it from your mistakes. “At that time there was no consumer demand for cars at all - as there is no demand for any new, yet unfamiliar to the consumer, product. I gave up this occupation, leaving my post in the company, and for the future I decided: from now on I will never occupy a dependent position, ”Henry said about this time.
The search for new partners was no less difficult, but in 1903 luck smiled - the Ford Motor Company appeared, where Henry Ford was the general manager.
As a manager
Interesting quotes from his book reflect the manager's view of education: “Specialists are so experienced and educated that they know for certain why something cannot be done, they are able to see obstacles and limits everywhere. Therefore, if you want to defeat your competitors, then simply provide them with the hordes of the most educated specialists. " These quotes from the self-taught nugget of Henry Ford from his book are not devoid of some sense: the main thing, after all, in a person is not education, but talent.
Although the resistance to education in Ford's life sometimes reached ridiculous levels. For example, such interesting facts from the life of the great talented inventor are known: Ford did not know how to read drawings until his death! Instead of blueprints, engineers had to make wooden mock-ups, which they laid out on the car king's table for a verdict.
Inventor's Triumph - Model "T"
But what the genius Henry Ford invented, taking an expensive car model as a basis and creating a "car for middle-class Americans", was a real revolution in the automotive industry. Cars were being snapped up by consumers at such a speed that Henry began to think about a new idea - how to improve the process of making cars.
So he invented a new control system, which he called "the terror of the machine." The success story of Ford Managing Director has written a new page.
Control system implemented by Ford
The first step towards increasing production efficiency was the introduction of a conveyor system. This made it possible to reduce the manufacturing time of both individual units and the machine itself as a whole. Later, by the king of the automotive industry, the conveyor was further improved - it began to be developed in two versions: for tall and for short workers.
Of course, the businessman was primarily concerned not with the facts of creating the convenience of workers' work, but with increasing the profit received.
The second step was the establishment of an 8-hour working day, social service at the enterprise. Raising wages was the third step in increasing profits.
At first glance, the facts, strange at first glance, actually had their own explanation: labor productivity increased, workers tried their best not to lose their jobs, turnover became a rare phenomenon and, as a result, the cost of training new workers decreased.
The auto mogul's success story was at the zenith of his fame: his actions were supported by the bulk of the population - the working class.
Milestones in life after 1925
In 1925, the automobile tycoon already creates an airline, which he calls Ford Airways. The first airliner produced was the three-engined Ford 3-AT Air Pullman. In total, from 1925 to 1989, 199 copies of the liners were produced under the leadership of Henry Ford.
Further, a brief biography of the tycoon is as follows:
1928 - Presentation of the Benjamin Franklin Institute Elliott Cresson Medal to Ford for revolutionary achievement in the automotive industry and industrial leadership.
1930 - Ford resigns from the leadership position due to disagreements with unions and partners and the control of the campaign is transferred to his son Edsel,
1943 - death of his son and return to the post of head of the company. 1945 - transfer of management of the company to his grandson Henry Ford II.
A book about life and achievements
Ford's biography, along with his reflections, is set out in his author's work "My Life, My Achievements." The author of the book expresses in it interesting thoughts on how to achieve success, illuminates the reader with some facts of his biography.
It contains interesting quotes, reflections on reincarnation. “Genius is experience. Some people think that this is a gift or talent given by someone, but in reality it is just the fruits of experience that a person has accumulated over many previous lives. "
Other interesting quotes from the book are suitable not only for a businessman, but also for every person, regardless of gender and age. For example, when thinking about the past and the future, a wise thought is expressed: “One should not be afraid of the future in the same way as one should not respect the past. Fearing failure in the future, a person sets a boundary for himself. Failures in the past are just an opportunity to start all over again, but to do everything smarter. "
The image of the "automobile king" in the works of other authors
Henry Ford's biography is beautifully described by Upton Sinclair in The Automobile King. The author of this book skillfully draws the image of a tycoon, cites facts from the life of the "automobile king", shows the difficult path that Ford went through, achieving success and achieving his goal, describing the life story of Henry Ford. It also contains wise quotes from the statements of Henry Ford the businessman, interesting facts.
The author of Brave New World describes Henry Ford in a completely different way. O. Huxley wrote an ironic piece ridiculing Ford's approach to production improvement. The conveyor principle of production with the help of the grotesque was cruelly ridiculed by the author. In his novel, the whole society is organized according to the conveyor type, the chronology begins with the year the Ford car model was produced, and instead of the words "by God" people say "by God."
But, despite the facts showing the great automobile tycoon as an ordinary person who is prone to mistakes, his life story is interesting and can serve as an example for many. You just need to approach it selectively.
Henry Ford's statements about business.
Henry Ford is generally regarded as the creator of the twentieth century "industry of industries." And the man who brought the industrial revolution to its climax. His company produced and assembled virtually all the components of the cars produced, using the constantly moving belt of the main assembly line and numerous auxiliary lines supplying it with parts, as well as applying the principle of vertical integration of interacting divisions. The money and efforts of people were spent in such a way as to ensure significant volumes of production: from 1914 onwards.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 in Michigan on his father's farm near the village of Deeborn. USA.
The Ford family - the perfect find for moralizing biographies - lived a working life, enjoying humble, hard-to-find wealth.
Henry spent his childhood on a farm, where he helped his parents, and also began his education at a rural school in Dearborn, Michigan.
In addition to Henry, the family had six more children.
As a young man, at the age of twelve, Henry built a small workshop in which he spent all his free time. A few years later, Henry had already created his first engine, which was powered by steam.
When one of the children was given a clockwork toy, the young Fords squeaked in six voices: "Just don't give Henry!" They knew that he would take it apart to a screw, and after assembly, half of the parts would be superfluous. This bright image emerges from the memories of Ford himself: in one hand young Henry was holding a broken alarm clock, in the other - a screwdriver, and a small flashlight, the only source of light, was squeezed by his knees.
In 1879 he turned sixteen years old, and one day, without saying a word to anyone, he folded the bundle and went to Detroit. After walking nine miles, Henry rented a room there and got a job as an apprentice in a mechanical workshop as an assistant machinist.
In 1887, when he went to a congress in Atlantic City, where experts in the field of electrical engineering met, he met Thomas Edison, already famous and wealthy at that time, with whom he communicated for a long time and told him about his developments and ideas in the field of creating new engines. ... business manager ford management
Ford's assistants were amazed that Henry, always saving on workers' wages, doubled wages with the onset of the Great Depression (1929-1932). And Henry's household had reasons for concern: the way he treated his only son, Edsel, defied any explanation.
Edsel was always a good boy: he received only excellent grades, obeyed his dad, was respectful to his employees and really wanted to head Ford Motor - in a word, he did what he was supposed to. Henry did not want to let his son go to the First World War - and Edsel came to the recruiting station and demanded to give him a reservation as the organizer of military production; Henry was suspicious of higher education - and the excellent student Edsel came to the Ford corporation right after school, at the age of 21 he got a seat on the board of directors. Edsel caught Dad's instructions on the fly and disappeared for hours in the design office: his father made the most reliable car in the world, he also dreamed of making the most beautiful one.
In the late thirties, Edsel began to complain of stomach pains. He was prescribed a barium diet, but he considered himself a sophisticated person and did not want to be treated in this way. When the doctors diagnosed stomach cancer, it was too late to do anything. Ford Jr. was cut out half of his stomach and asked his family to prepare for the worst, but Henry decided that the doctors were doing nonsense as usual. He was absolutely sure that his son could deal with his problems on his own: his secretary handed Edsel a lengthy memorandum in which Henry outlined all his claims. His father told him to work harder, ordered him to break off relations with the "slobber" from the wealthy families of Detroit, offered to make friends with good, reliable, trusted people, a list of whom Henry attached to his letter. It ended with a pretentious appeal: "Restore your health by partnering with Henry Ford!"- at this phrase Edsel burst into tears, wrote a letter of resignation and went home.
Henry never believed that his son was dying; during the funeral, the elder Ford looked not so much broken as bewildered. Walking behind the coffin, he kept repeating: "There is nothing to be done, you need to work harder."
Harry Bennett, Henry's new right-hand man, became the executive director of Ford Motor. He began his career as a sailor, then became a professional boxer, and then got into Ford's bodyguard, liked him and managed to get to the very top. The manager Bennett turned out to be worthless: together with Henry, who had finally lost his mind, they almost brought the company to bankruptcy: under the onslaught of competitors, sales of Ford Motor fell every year.
Henry was actively driving out of his mind - lately the old man often spoke in the direction of unfamiliar people and shared his innermost with them: "You know, I'm sure Edsel is not dead!" He became more and more manageable, and power in the family passed to women. The old man became more and more strange, he really wanted to celebrate the centenary, but fate did not want to show the elder Ford the last mercy. He died in 1947 at the age of 84. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law entered into a temporary alliance.
"Ford Motor" still belongs to the heirs of the founder. But the Fords are no longer running the company — hired managers are the ones who run the business.
Henry's grandson, at the insistence of his family, was named Henry II. He still does not know how to read and does not know that his surname is written on tens of millions of cars.
THE MAIN CONTRIBUTION OF HENRY FORD
· Although Ford is often credited with inventing assembly lines and highly efficient mass production, most of his ideas and practical innovations that have made both the entrepreneur and the company prosperous and famous have been known for decades, sometimes centuries. In addition to the internal combustion engine and the automobile as such, these inventions and ideas included scientific management methods requiring the study of labor movements. And also the systematic use of wages as an incentive to work; use of interchangeable parts; planning and standard procedures for inventory control, product release and accounting; the use of assembly and production lines; and even continuously moving assembly line production.
However, Ford did develop production, assembly, and transportation systems that were unprecedented in their mobility and size, and anticipated their emergence in the late twentieth century. Just-in-time methods. Henry Ford's main dream of mass motorization of the population was, in fact, purely American, based on his sympathies for equality, mobility, change, realism, directness and simplicity.
- · In 1908, he created the "Ford T" - a car of all times and peoples, with minor changes produced until 1928. Lightweight, compact, cheap, simple: farmers drove in it to shop, bootleggers transported smuggled whiskey, gangsters ran away from the police - and they all could not boast of a Ford T.
- · Wrote several books that have become iconic for many business owners and fans around the world.
- · Creator of one of the first charitable foundations founded by industrialists.
- · Awarded the American Petroleum Institute's National and Society Achievement Award.
By the age of fifty, Ford had become a multimillionaire, and his car became one of the national symbols of America. After that, he abandoned invention forever: the "Ford T" was to remain his masterpiece. The strongest quality of G. Ford as the creator of the US automobile industry was his understanding of the importance of "performance". One of the main results of this understanding was the desire of G. Ford to provide his company with the maximum possible autonomy, the other - the belief in the possibility of "abundance for all" or in accordance with his motto: "High wages to create large markets." He was not the inventor of mass production (although he symbolized it in many ways), time-based inventory control, vertical integration, a slightly crude but effective version of a marketing concept, a large auto company as a multinational corporation, human resource management or corporate philanthropy. But he was the first to practically implement some of these ideas, greatly improve others, and effectively combine most of them together.
However, his main achievement was that he made the car a mass means of transportation for Americans and at the same time helped to improve the well-being of the population and relieve millions of people from the need for hard physical labor. He was also ahead of his time in prioritizing the interests of buyers and workers over those of shareholders.
Henry Ford was indeed one of the great managers of the 20th century. All his hard life, the struggle with it, all his shortcomings, which he tried to turn into advantages, all his perseverance and ability to achieve goals were the excellent products of his company, known throughout the world.
I believe that only one who has achieved exactly what he wanted, while bringing benefit to the people, can be called a great manager.
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) - American engineer, industrialist, inventor. One of the founders of the US automotive industry, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, the organizer of the in-line production.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, the son of a Michigan farmer, an emigrant from Ireland. The father was dissatisfied with him, considering him lazy and sissy - the son behaved like a prince who happened to be on a farm. Henry was reluctant to do whatever he was told. He hated chickens and cows, hated milk. "Already in my early youth, I thought that many things could be done differently - in some other way." For example, he, Henry, has to climb steep stairs every morning, carrying buckets of water. Why do this every day when you can only lay two meters of water pipes underground?
When his son was twelve, his father gave him a pocket watch. He could not resist - he forged the cover with a screwdriver, and something wonderful opened up to his eyes. Parts of the mechanism interacted with each other, one wheel moved the other, each screw was important here. Having disassembled and assembled the watch, the boy pondered for a long time. What is the world if not one big mechanism? One movement is generated by another; everything has its own levers. To be successful, you just need to know which levers to push. Henry quickly learned how to repair watches and for some time even worked part-time, touring the surrounding farms and taking chronometers that had been put up for repair. The second shock was the meeting with the locomobile. Henry and his father were returning by cart from the city when they met a huge self-propelled car enveloped in steam. Overtaking the cart and frightening the horses, the smoking and hissing monster rushed past. At that moment, Henry would have given half his life to be there in the chauffeur's booth.
At the age of 15, G. Ford left school and at night on foot, without saying anything to anyone, he went to Detroit: he would never become a farmer, as his father wanted.
At the factory where he got a job, they made horse-drawn carriages. Here he did not last long. Ford only had to touch the broken mechanism to understand what the problem was. Other workers began to envy the gifted newcomer. They did everything to survive the upstart from the factory, and they succeeded - Ford was fired. Later, Henry got a job at the Flower Brothers shipyard. And at night he worked part-time by fixing the clock so that he had something to pay for the room.
And William Ford, meanwhile, decided to make one last attempt to return his son to farming: he offered 40 acres of land on the condition that he would never say the word "machine" again in his life. Henry suddenly agreed. The father was pleased, the son too. The gullible William did not even suspect that his son was simply fooling him. For Henry, this incident served as a lesson: if you want to become king, be ready to lie.
Soon, Henry Ford decided to get married. Clara Bryant was three years younger than him. They met at a country dance. Ford was a brilliant dancer and impressed the girl by showing her his pocket watch and claiming that he had made it himself. They were connected by a lot - just like Henry, Clara was born into a farmer's family, she did not disdain any work. The girl's parents are pious and strict people, of course, they would not give her up for a young man without a penny, without land and a home. Having hastily built a cozy house on his site, Henry settled in it with his young wife. Years later, the automobile monarch will say: “My wife believed in my success even more strongly than I did. She has always been like that. " Clara could spend hours listening to her husband's reasoning about the idea of creating a self-propelled crew. Throughout her long family life, she always knew how to maintain an elegant balance - she was interested in her husband's affairs, but never interfered in them.
As time went. And one day Ford Sr. found the cozy house of the newlyweds abandoned - Henry and Clara unexpectedly moved to Detroit, where Ford went to work for the Detroit Electric Company as an engineer.
In November 1893, Clara gave Ford a son. The boy was named Edsel.
That same year, in a brick shed behind the semi-detached house where he lived with his wife, Clara, Ford finished building his first experimental car. The inventor worked for two days without rest or sleep, and at two in the morning on June 4 he came to inform his wife that the car was ready and he was now going to test it. Dubbed the "Quadricycle" and weighing only five hundred pounds, the car ran on four bicycle tires.
And in the same 1893, Ford became chief engineer of the Edison company, which specialized in lighting Detroit, and then - in 1899 - chief engineer of the Detroit Automobile Company. But after a while, they began to notice that Ford spends all his mental and physical strength on a gasoline cart, and not at all on office work. Henry was offered a leadership position on the condition that he give up his invention. Ford hesitated. The arguments of reason were as follows: the family must be supported, there are no savings - everything was spent on building the cart. Clara, seeing his hesitation, said that whatever Henry did, she would approve of his decision. After leaving, Ford began to "sell himself." He was looking for wealthy partners, because Henry himself did not have money, as such, and in his new enterprise he assigned himself the role of a supplier of ideas. But nobody wanted to buy these ideas. In the end, after giving a Detroit businessman a ride at breakneck speed, Henry agreed to work with the inventor. Detroit Automobile Company did not last long. “There was no demand for cars, just as there is no demand for any new product. I left my post, determined never to be in a dependent position again, ”Ford recalled. And again the "trade in ideas" began, the search for companions. Refusals rained down on him like a cornucopia, from one office he was almost taken out by force. Finally, in 1903, the Ford Motor Company was registered. Henry became general manager. Being a self-taught mechanic himself, Ford willingly hired the same nuggets at the factory: “The specialists are so smart and experienced that they know exactly why this and that cannot be done, they see limits and obstacles everywhere. If I wanted to destroy competitors, I would provide them with hordes of specialists. "
The car king never learned to read blueprints in his entire life: engineers simply made a wooden model for the boss and gave him to court.
In 1905, Ford's financial partners did not agree with his intention to produce cheap cars, because expensive models were in demand, the main shareholder Alexander Malcolmson sold his share to Ford, after which Henry Ford became the owner of a controlling interest and president of the company (he was president of the company in 1905-1919 and in 1943-1945).
A real triumph for Ford was the introduction of the "T" model, which meant a change in all benchmarks in the concept of the automotive industry. He created it as a sculptor, cutting off all unnecessary things, creating not a luxurious toy for the elite, but an affordable product for thousands and thousands of “average Americans”. The success exceeded all expectations. Over the years of production of the "T" model, more than 15 million cars were sold, easily conquering the consumer market.
Mass production required the standardization and unification of all technological processes. “Terror of the machine” - this is how Ford characterized the control system he implemented. A clear control and planning system, conveyor production, continuous technological chains - all this contributed to the fact that the Ford empire worked in automatic mode.
Ford was the first to establish minimum wages and an 8-hour workday in its factories. However, going to improve the social status of workers, Ford preferred to do this solely on his own initiative. Therefore, in the future, he stubbornly ignored the pressure of the trade unions, which ultimately led to a protracted conflict with them in 1937-1941. A sociological service with a staff of 60 people was created at his factories, which at that time was a major innovation.
Ford was literally obsessed with diet and a healthy lifestyle, was fond of the history of American culture, and was no stranger to philanthropy. However, his social activities - active anti-Jewish accessions, a cruise of the world during the First World War, an attempt to become a senator - were mostly scandalous.
Believing in his own genius, Ford began to lose the flexibility and flair of an innovator. In the 1930s, there were major changes in consumer demand, and Ford, devoted to its old concept, did not take them into account. As a result, the leading position in the automotive industry had to be yielded to another large company - General Motors.
In September 1945, Ford transferred the management of the company (previously formally owned by his only son Edsel) to his grandson and namesake Henry Ford 2 and retired. Two years later, on April 7, 1947, at the age of 83, Ford died.
