Ford Relies on others

One organization that really relies on each other is the Ford Motor Company. Not that I like Fords, but believe it or not Fords were once a good vehicle. Henry Ford sold his first car (model A) in 1903 for about $800. He then tried to open a factory twice, but failed. At the time vehicles were unreliable and people were skeptical on buying one. Ford built reliable vehicle, but still needed to prove it. (This is funny by the way because Fords now days are very unreliable.) Anyhow, he started building and racing his own cars, and made a name for himself. Once people had more interest in ford, he opened a new factory. Although his 3rd attempt was a success, he felt that he still needed to be more efficient. In 1913 he introduced the motorized assembly line which built cars cheaper and faster. In this assembly line, the car moved on conveyor belts and stopped in each section for the same amount of time. Each worker was assigned a specific task to be done in that time frame. For example 4 people each put 1 wheel on, 1 person installs a steering wheel, and another installs the head lamps (headlights were called head lamps at the time), and so on... This made work way more efficient, and Ford made more money which he passed on to the costumers selling Model Ts for $300 instead of $850. This also resulted in a higher demand for Ford vehicle which make Ford rely on their workers even more. In 1914, Ford introduced a $5 a day pay which was about twice the regular pay in other factories. Ford believed that the higher pay would make the workers happy, and a happy worker is more productive. Sound familiar? I think they say the same about dairy cows. Ford also believed that the pay increase would also create job loyalty. It would also make sure that the workers would come to work and be on time. This was very important because if one person was gone or even just late, it would slow down production in the whole factory. Each and every worker relied on the worker before them. The person that installs the wheel needs to rely on the person who installs the axel and also the person after him that installs the wheel nuts to hold the wheel. If the person that installs the wheel nuts was not there, the guy who installs the w heel needs to hold the wheel and install the nuts in the same time frame that he did only one job in or else production is lost. Ford had to make sure that his workers were there and productive all the time because if productivity was lost, he would have to ask more for the cars and pay the workers less money. Henry Ford was all about productivity, in fact, he painted all Model Ts black because it dried faster. Ford produced the Model T from 1908 until 1927, building 15 million cars and each car was exactly the same and only in black. Which made Henry Ford’s most famous quote; “you can have any color you like – as long as it’s black”.