Henry Ford: Industry Icon (The good, the bad, and the ugly)
Was Ford first to use the idea of standardized interchangeable parts? Nope. Eli Whitney was doing it over a hundred years earlier, in the manufacture of muskets for the military.
Well, surely, Ford invented the idea of mass-production, right? Wrong again. Ford simply improved the idea with a genuine invention of his own: the moving assembly line. Ransom Olds, of Oldsmobile fame, is credited with the invention of mass-production in the building of automobiles. The Curved Dash Olds was mass-produced years before Henry Ford started cranking out mass-produced models. By the time Ford incorporate the Ford Motor Company in 1903, Olds was already selling thousands of cars per year-5,000 in 1904 alone. The big innovation of a moving assembly line at Ford didn't come to pass until 1913.
Ford is credited with raising the wages of his workers to double the national standard at the time. That would be a significant 'first,' and it is true. But it must also be noted that the idea was launched because of high worker turnover and dissatisfaction in the new assembly line method of construction. Through doubling the going wage for workers, Ford was able to quell the rising tide of voices opposing the new construction format, with its de-humanizing and unpleasant monotony. Turnover has been quoted at between 40% and 60% per month prior to the establishment of the revolutionary $5 per day wage. The combined result of this more contented and stable work force and the cutting of production time was a redoubling of corporate profit in just two years-to $60 million in 1918.
In many ways, the Henry Ford story is a rags-to-riches tale of idealism tied to hard work-the very stuff of American legend. It is an example of the possibility of the American Dream. It is the so-called Protestant Work Ethic in action.
Ford was the second of eight children, born in 1863 to William and Mary (Litogot) Ford. He was born at the family residence, a farm at Greenfield, Michigan. He quit school at 15 to work on the family farm. This rural life left many lasting positive impressions, but he disliked being a farmer. And his lack of education would return to haunt him for the rest of his life.
By 1879, at the age of 16, Henry left home for the excitement and opportunity of the city. In Detroit he became an apprentice machinist-something far more to his liking than
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