The Ford Motor Company

by Bob Trevan

In this One Hundredth Year, the Ford Motor Company can look back with justifiable satisfaction and reflection that where many failed this company was able to succeed and often succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations. It was Henry Ford's controversial idea that made the difference. Whilst others of the time saw the automobile as little more than an expensive toy for the wealthy, Ford looked beyond this narrow concept and perceived the motor car as a useful tool for all of society.

At the turn of the century most people lived in small rural towns. Streets were dirt/mud surfaced - even major cities lacked an abundance of paved streets. Train travel was not uncommon but most towns lacked a rail service. Then there were the city streets covered with horse manure, horse urine and associated flies and insects. The stench was almost unbearable but it was horsepower that turned the wheels of industry, commerce and society. Those who couldn't afford a horse rode bicycles and those who couldn't afford a bicycle walked. Most people walked!!!

Then came the automobile......

One hundred years ago the automobile industry was experimental, mostly dabbled in by mechanically minded men in their off duty hours. An astounding 5000 incorporations were registered for the purpose of manufacturing automobiles in the US and 2,600 actually manufactured and sold them. Only a few became successful and widely known.

Henry Ford was one of those who almost did not make it. His first company failed. His second company failed. On June 16 1903 Henry and eleven associates dispatched incorporation papers to Michigan's state capital for the formation of the Ford Motor Company. Henry was 39 years old, middle aged, and had yet to achieve real business success.

It was Henry Ford's extraordinary vision of a small inexpensive motorcar for the common man and his relentless striving for efficiency and high volume in the manufacturing process that set him apart in the early years of the American automobile industry. Ford intended to build a thousand cars a day but Henry's father warned him that if he made over 35 cars a day he would saturate the market!!

Ford also exhibited an essential ability to hire highly talented and experienced managers in each critical department. These factors combined with a nation's insatiable appetite for an "affordable" car led the Ford Motor Company to achieve unparalleled prominence in America and throughout the world.

Initially the Ford Motor Company was purely the assembler of components that were manufactured by external suppliers and brought to the plant in horse drawn wagons. The first car, called the Model A was fairly successful particularly following improvements made to its cooling system and the lifting of the horsepower rating to its 2 cylinder engine.

Model A Ford
(Courtesy The Ford Road)

This success helped the Ford Motor Company direct its course toward the production of a large number of small simple inexpensive automobiles. These cars were also largely experimental but became important steps toward the development of Ford's ultimate dream, The Universal Car: a car that became known as the Model T.

In late 1904 with production requirements increasing a new facility was developed providing ten times more working space. Working day and night Ford's dedicated and talented staff laboured to make constant improvements to the Ford automobile. Each major improvement that went into production was awarded a new model letter, hence the evolution of the Alphabet Series of Ford cars. Many of the unused letters existed only as designs or plans not developed for production. Ford and his engineers began experimenting with steel alloys at the Piquette Avenue plant and it was here that Ford fully comprehended the possibilities of vanadium and heat-treated steels. The inspiration for the Model T dawned upon him; "this means an entirely new design and we can get a better and lighter and cheaper car as a result".

By 1913 in order to cater to the burgeoning market Henry built the world's largest auto factory. It consisted of the moving assembly line that covered 110 acres all under one roof. Assembly time dropped from 12 hours per vehicle to two hours and for the first time in history one factory was building 1000 cars a day. Fifty thousand workers toilet here producing millions of Model T Ford and as history would soon reveal, even this facility could not keep up with the growing demand for Ford cars.

As a boy Henry Ford detested farm "chores" Having grown up on his father's farm in Dearborn, Michigan, he vowed "to lift the burden of farming from flesh and blood and place it on steel and motors". He is said to have been interested in steam powered farm traction engines before he was interested in motorcars. The introduction of the Model T had creative men and women finding new uses for it and this led to a rural revolution. With attachments and conversions the Model T ploughed fields and cut firewood, pumped water or ran other equipment. Model T's became snowmobiles and camping facilities and Model T trucks hauled just about everything all year.

Before World War I Ford began to plan the development of a 2,000-acre tract of land along the Rouge River in Dearborn, southwest of Detroit. Originally envisioned as a plant for tractor production, the Rouge Plant first produced Eagle boats during the war. Soon after it rapidly turned into the world's largest industrial complex. For almost 85 years the Dearborn plant has supplied the world with Fords. This year the plant will undergo a massive redevelopment. A new vehicle assembly plant will be the centerpiece of the USA's largest industrial redevelopment project.

Into the 1920's Model T production continued until severe competition forced Ford to produce the stylish and improved 1928 Model A. Improvements in performance and design continued as new Ford cars came on the market. It is said that the most significant manufacturing innovation of the 1930 - 1959 period was casting the entire engine block of the 1932 Ford V-8 engine as a single unit.

Henry Ford died at his beloved Fairlane Estate on April 7 1947. The following day The Detroit Free Press carried a 20,000-word obituary. One hundred thousand paid their final respects past the bier. Detroit's city council directed that a large portrait of Ford be displayed on the front of city hall for thirty days. Ford plants were closed the day of Ford's funeral and all other auto manufacturers ordered their assembly lines shut down for one minute.

Throughout all the years of development the Ford Motor Company has altered society on a national and global scale through production of the universal car, pioneering international expansion and it's role in revolutionizing agriculture. Ford Motor Company has also had a greater impact on the world's economy and way of life than any other business enterprise. To this day Ford is with Coca Cola, one of the two best known brand names on earth. Ford has led the US based competitors in overseas retail sales of cars, trucks and tractors in 21 nations with assemblers, dealers and agents in 180 additional countries and territories.

Today more than 100 automobiles manufacturers are spread around the globe producing 50 million vehicles each year. Only a few of these companies have survived for One Hundred years, and none has put as many people on motorized wheels as the Ford Motor Company.