"It is doubtful if any mechanical invention in the history of the world has influenced in the same length of time the lives of so many people in an important way as the motor car." So writes an American historian, thinking of the automobile alone. But it does not stand-alone. It was the automobile factory that introduced mass production, a process that has changed the lineaments of our economic and social life more profoundly than any other single element in the recent history of civilization. Nearly everyone has heard of this process, yet few have any detailed or exact knowledge of its inception and development. Enter Henry Ford. The true answers of what inspired this Michigan farmer to develop a production process that was so simple, effective and efficient it changed the entire course of history.

In this report, we will present a brief history of the era in which Henry Ford lived, the background from which he came, and important management trends he followed.

It is hard to summarize the era in which Henry Ford lived. Chiefly because he changed the entire tone of the era in which he lived, making his career a transitional period. We will begin with the wo

By 1899 Ford had produced an operable car that was written up in the Detroit Journals. Ford was described as a "mechanical engineer." Eventually his work developing automobiles conflicted with his position at the Detroit Edison Illuminating Company. Even though the company was well pleased with his work and offered him the General Superintendent position, they asked him to make a choice. Could he give up his "hobby" of automobile building and devote himself to the company? Ford made the decision. He wanted to make automobiles.

During his career, particularly in the early 1900's, Ford methods of management were seen as being very innovative. "He was a student of the modern management methods that were emerging at the time. For example, he was familiar with the work of Frederick Taylor, the driving force behind the new principles of scientific management and the use of time and motion studies to increase job efficiency." 9Frederick Taylor truly used a scientific approach to management. He took each element of management and production and examined it under great scrutiny. He also observed how each portion of the entire production process worked together as a team. His purpose was to refine each element and bring them together under the least amount of functional friction. "For example, Taylor took aside the worker element and discovered that most of them were soldiering. Soldiering is deliberately working at less than full capacity."10 Upon resolving this problem, the worker element now has less functional friction will perform better for the team. More relevant to Ford's case was Taylor's time-and-motion study. This study sharply examined how a worker performed a task. It followed each motion that the worker went through to accomplish a task and then tried to simplify each task by removing steps and/or refining them so that the job could be done faster and with less effort. This proved to be the most revealing of Frederick's studies as it allowed work to be done at a much faster rate and in some cases quadrupled production!

 Ford: Expansion and Challenge, Allen Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957), 76-155

 The Quest for Social Justice, H.U. Faulkner (New York, 1931), p137 http://www.hfmgv.org

Although he yearned to go to Detroit and work in the machine shops, Ford stayed on the farm helping his family until he was seventeen. Then, with his father's blessing, he moved to Detroit and started working at the Michigan Car Company for $1.10 a day. He was fired shortly thereafter after angering the older employees by making repairs in a 1/2 hour instead of the usual five hours.

11. Kathryn M. Bartol & David C. Martin, Management 3rd edition (Boston, Massachusetts Burr Ridge, Illinois Dubuque, Iowa Madison, Wisconsin New York, New York San Francisco, California St. Louis, Missouri 1998),

By 1882 Ford had left Detroit and used the family farm as his address as he traveled around from job to job. In 1885, at a party, he met Clara Jane Bryant. They married April 11, 1888 and their only child, Edsel, named after his boyhood friend Edsel Ruddiman, was born November 6, 1893. Ford had never given up his dream of a "horseless carriage." Whenever he had a spare moment he read about gas engines and experimented in his own workshop. By 1891 he and Clara had moved back to Detroit and Ford began working for Detroit Edison Illuminating Company. Ford's Quadricycle (his first autom

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