Henry Ford was born in 1863 in Michigan to become one of the greatest men in the history of America and the entire world (Gelderman par. 1-2). His visionary approach to the automobile industry promoted the innovations of cars and assembly lines and contributed greatly to the modern concepts of mass production and personal transport.
Early Life
Ford was the son of farmers, but he did not want to follow his father’s steps; instead, he demonstrated talents for other things. When telling his story, the Henry Ford museum emphasizes that Henry showed interest in building and engineering since childhood. For example, he constructed “rudimentary” water wheels and steam engines (“Henry Ford” par. 2).
Moreover, Ford engaged other youngsters in these activities and managed to organize their work. Apart from that, he learned to fix watches himself. In fact, it might be more accurate to state that he taught himself to do it, and it was another talent of Henry Ford: he wanted knowledge, and he learned to find it by exploring, investigating, making mistakes, and fixing them. Watches became his “textbook,” and he learned about the “rudiments of machine design” with their help (“Henry Ford” par. 2).
Early Career
In 1879, young Ford went to work as an apprentice at the Michigan Car Company in Detroit, which started his quest for jobs that could provide him with more knowledge of mechanics. He always sought for the jobs that offered the opportunity to learn something new (“Henry Ford” par. 4). In 1882, he came back to his family farm but kept working with machinery: the steam engines that the farmers used or odd jobs at Detroit factories took up his time. However, it was also clear that he did not really enjoy working for someone else.
In 1888, he got married and moved to Detroit. Ford chose to work for the Edison Electric Illuminating Company because he needed to know more about electricity (“Henry Ford” par. 5). In five years, he was taking the post of the chief engineer in the Company, but Ford also worked in another direction: he was among those 19th-century people who were trying to build the “horseless carriage”. His first model, the Quadricycle, appeared in 1896. It had heavy wheels that reminded one of bicycles but no reverse. His second car was created in 1898, and Ford grew ambitious enough to create his own company that would manufacture his carriages.
Ford Motor Company
When Ford first started to take up business, it turned out that he needed to learn about this sphere of human activities as well. He did it in the same way as before: started two companies and learned through errors that the ventures did not survive. Ford, however, did not give up, and his visionary leadership skills together with the rising popularity of racing cars provided him with the investing that helped him create the Ford Motor Company in 1903.
The Company was geared by Ford’s vision of a “motorcar for the great multitude” that would be constructed of highest-quality materials with the help of the simplest of designs and sold at the smallest price possible (Ford 106). What Ford wanted is an affordable but a quality car, and for that, he attracted the most talented people to his company. These people, who he picked himself for his team, created the famous Model T, and in 1908, the wide public could get acquainted with it (“Henry Ford” par. 8).
The recipe for the success of the Model T corresponded to Ford’s vision: it was indeed high-quality and relatively cheap, but what is more, it was easy to operate even on a rough road. The success, however, prompted the next greatest achievement of Ford: his employment of assembly line. According to Ford himself, “it is better to sell a large number of cars at a reasonably small margin than to sell fewer cars at a large margin of profit” (p. 232). To reach the economies of scale that he wanted, he made several steps (Watts 279).
First, he moved to a bigger factory at the Highland Park that provided him with the opportunity to produce more cars. Then he tried to decrease their cost with the help of his own, customized assembly line. This line concept was based on the ideas from watch, gun, and bicycle makes as well as meat packers; apart from that, Ford and the team introduced their own ideas, and the final technique was developed by the end of 1913. When the workers complained about the repetitive work, Ford raised their wage, which led to two positive outcomes: the turnover rates at the factory dropped, and the employees received the opportunity to become the consumers as well. By 1922, every second car in the US was the Model T (“Henry Ford” par. 10).
Unfortunately, these figures made Ford overconfident. He bought out the enterprise, which gave him the complete control over its operations. He was certain that Model T was the perfect car, so he tried to deny the declining sales until it was impossible. After that, new Ford models did appear, but none of them repeated the Model T success. Because of the competition, Ford Motor Company soon became the third in the US market. During the Great Depression, the wages of the workers dropped, and many layoffs followed. Ford also did not want to deal with the Workers Union, but eventually was forced to sign a contract with them. Ford remained influential, of course, and his Company contributed greatly to the victory over the Nazism in the World War II by supplying the US military with vehicles. Still, the glorious success of Model T was over, and in 1945, Henry Ford officially retired.
The Person and The Achievements
Henry Ford died in 1947 (Gelderman par. 1). He was not a man without a flaw. He never tried to receive formal education and stayed distrustful to things he did not know. He was an idealist, but it somehow combined this trait with a mean-spirited attitude to the people who surrounded him (Watts xiii). He had a bright personality that always attracted the attention of the media, but the headlines about him could both praise and condemn him (Gelderman par. 2). Still, his complex personality fueled the change that he brought upon our world.
It is noteworthy that Ford did not invent the automobile as such, and the assembly line was not created by him (“Henry Ford” par. 1). However, his methods of using the assembly line for factory production have been termed as “revolutionary” (Gelderman par. 1). He acted as an innovator by promoting the ideas that might have stayed unnoticed and turned them into an important part of our everyday life. He was visionary and creative, ingenious and hard-working, and very ambitious. These ambitions helped him make his visions come true. They also have determined the American society and industry to an extent that few other people can be as commended or blamed for our modern lifestyle, and he will always be remembered for that (Watts xv).
Works Cited
Ford, Henry. My Life and Work. New York, New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2015. Print.
Gelderman, Carol W. “Henry Ford.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2016.
“Henry Ford.” The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford, 2016.
Watts, Steven. The People’s Tycoon. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. Print.