The Henry Ford story

Henry Ford has changed the way of life for many people with his vision to make owning a car both
practical and affordable. The moving assembly line and mass production techniques that he developed
set the standard for worldwide industrial practice in the first half of the 20th Century.

The story begins in Spring wells Township, Wayne County, Michigan, on 30 July 1863, when Henry was
the first-born of William and Mary Fords six children. Growing up on a prosperous family farm, he was
educated in a one-room school, where he showed an early interest in all things mechanical. This interest
would develop into true genius and earn him the accolade of one of the greatest industrialists in the
world.

The Henry Ford Story

Learning the trade

Henry Ford started young. By the age of 12, he was spending most of his spare time in a small machine
shop, which he had equipped himself. It was here that he constructed his first steam engine, in 1878,
aged just 15. The next year, Henry left home, bound for the nearby city of Detroit, to work as an
apprentice machinist.

His first vehicle

The culmination of his experiments was the building of a self-propelled vehicle the Quadricycle in
1896. The first Ford engine spluttered its way into history, on his wooden kitchen table at 58 Bagley
Avenue and this was quickly followed by his next design, an engine mounted on a frame, fitted with four
bicycle wheels the first Ford car.

Going it alone

After resigning from Edison in 1898, Henry formed the Detroit Automobile Company. Unfortunately, the
company was forced into bankruptcy. But never one to be stopped by a setback, he designed and built
several racing cars and drove the infamous Sweepstakes to victory beating American Champion,
Alexander Winton, on 10 October 1901.

Starting the Ford Motor Company

The history of the car would be changed forever when the Ford Motor Company was incorporated, in
1903, with Henry Ford holding 25.5% of the stock and acting both as Vice President and Chief Engineer.
At first only a few cars a day were produced at the Ford factory on Mack Avenue, Detroit, where two or
three men worked on each car built from components made to order by other companies. The first car
built by the company, was sold on 23 July 1903, and Henry became President before becoming the
Controlling Owner three years later.
The evolution of mass production

Henry Ford designed his first moving assembly line in 1913, and revolutionized the manufacturing
processes of his Ford Model T.

This assembly line, at the first Ford plant in Highland Park, Michigan, became the benchmark for mass
production methods around the world.

A simple idea

It was Henry's intention to produce the largest number of cars, to the simplest design, for the lowest
possible cost. When car ownership was confined to the privileged few, Henry Ford's aim was to "put the
world on wheels" and produce an affordable vehicle for the general public.

How Ford first built cars

In the early days, Ford built cars the same way as everybody else one at a time. The car sat on the
ground throughout the build as mechanics and their support teams sourced parts and returned to the
car to assemble it from the chassis upwards. To speed the process up, cars were then assembled on
benches which were moved from one team of workers to the next. But this was not fast, as Ford still
needed skilled labour teams to assemble the 'hand-built' car. So production levels were still low and the
price of the car was higher to cover the costs of mechanics.

What was needed was automation. Henry and his engineers invented machines to make large quantities
of the parts needed for the vehicle and devised methods of assembling the parts as fast as they were
made. They were ready for the breakthrough.

Increasing productivity

To achieve Henry Fords goal of mass consumption through mass production, productivity needed to
increase. At the Detroit factory in Michigan, workers were placed at appointed stations and the chassis
was hauled along between them using strong rope. The chassis stopped at each station, where parts
were fitted, until it was finally completed.

An impressive result

Henry Ford had built on the basic principles of early pioneers such as Elihu Root, who masterminded an
assembly system for Samuel Colt, which divided the manufacturing process in order to simplify it.

He continued experimenting until every practice was refined, and his mass production vision became a
reality.
Another initiative was to use interchangeable parts that could be put together easily by unskilled
workers. The experiments continued with gravity slides and conveyors. Naturally, even the placement of
men and tools was meticulously researched to ensure the production line ran as efficiently as possible.

The sum of its parts

Each department, in the manufacturing process was broken down into its constituent parts. These sub-
assembly lines were set up in each area until, as Henry was heard to remark, "everything in the plant
moved." As a result, production speeds increased sometimes they were up to four times faster

The final assembly line

The ultimate step was the creation of the moving final assembly line. Starting with a bare chassis, it
moved along the line and through each workstation until a complete car was driven off under its own
power. An essential part of this process was that all feeder lines along the route were synchronised to
supply the right parts, at the right time.

Reaping the rewards

This combination of accuracy, continuity and speed introduced mass production to the world. At
Highland Park, Model T production reached record levels, with a complete car leaving the line every 10
seconds of every working day. Ford was able to cut prices, double the minimum daily wage to $5,
produce a superior product and still make a profit.

At this time, two million Model Ts were being produced by Ford each year and sold at just $260 a very
affordable price for its time.

Revolutionary progress

The Model T started a rural revolution. The $5 day wage and the philosophy behind it, started a social
revolution. The moving assembly line started an industrial revolution.

https://www.ford.co.uk/experience-ford/history-and-heritage