...The Ford’s River Rouge Plant Case Study By: William Perry University of Memphis World Class Manufacturing Concept TECH 7404 The Beginning 2,000-acre stretch of bottomland along the Rouge River. The Beginning The Rouge had its own railroad with 100 miles of track and 16 locomotives. A scheduled bus network and 15 miles of paved roads kept everything and everyone on the move. The Beginning • Henry Ford started out in 1915 by buying twothousand acres along the Rouge River west of Detroit. • 90 miles of railroad track both inside and out, and 120 miles of conveyor belts connected the facilities. • the original Rouge complex was a mile-and-a-half wide and more than a mile long. • The multiplex of 93 buildings totaled 15,767,708 square feet of floor area. Initial Plans • The Rouge River property was not earmarked for any particular use. Ford had considered turning the land into a large bird sanctuary. • Undersecretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt engaged Henry Ford to build boats. The Ford’s River Rouge Plant Originally created to produce only coke, smelt iron, and build tractors. Change of Plans • Ford shifted its final assembly line from Highland Park to the Rouge. • The Rouge becomes the most fully integrated car manufacturing facility in the world. • The Rouge employed more than 100,000 people. • 1 new car rolled off the line every 49 seconds. Complex contained every element needed to produce an automobile • • • • • • Blast furnaces A open...
Words: 374 - Pages: 2
...Although Henry Ford is credited for introducing the world’s first moving assembly line, the technology was not initially introduced at the at the Ford Rouge location which many mistakenly associate with the world renowned plant. Instead, The Rouge continued production of Eagle Boats as requested by Undersecretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. After the war ended, The Rouge’s production was focused on large freighters used to transport ore, coal and limestone. (Henry Ford’s Rouge, 2018) This would lead into the transition towards producing automotive parts and the components necessary to construct the Ford Model T, assembled at the Highland Park location. While the Model T became the first mass-produced automobile, enabling the growing...
Words: 328 - Pages: 2
...Eagle Boats Built for WWI The building up of the Rouge complex coincided with the beginning of World War I. The U.S. government quickly commissioned Ford Motor Company to build the Eagle Boats (also known as submarine chasers) for the U.S. Navy. Four months after the company received the order, the first Eagle Boat was launched into the Rouge boat slip. It was July 1918. Although the government had contracted with the company to build 100 of these boats, only 60 were produced before the war came to an end. Supplying the Allies’ Needs Eagle Boats were not the only product made by Ford Motor Company for the Allies in World War I. There were helmets, tanks, airplane engines; Model T cars, trucks, and ambulances; and Fordson tractors. After the war, the Rouge plant was converted for civilian production, but the first civilian product to be built was not a car or a truck this time, either—it was the "Fordson" tractor. Tractor production ended there in 1928, and car production commenced. But in 1942, civilian production temporarily ceased again to support the Allied war effort. The Rouge and the other Ford facilities were once again converted to wartime production. Mobility's MuseIn 1903 with $28,000 in cash, Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company, whose automobiles changed how the world moved. Innovation that Changed the World One hundred years ago today, Henry Ford and his team at Highland Park assembly plant launched the world’s greatest contribution to manufacturing...
Words: 943 - Pages: 4
...HENRY FORD While working as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, Henry Ford (1863-1947) built his first gasoline-powered horseless carriage, the Quadricycle, in the shed behind his home. In 1903, he established the Ford Motor Company, and five years later the company rolled out the first Model T. In order to meet overwhelming demand for the revolutionary vehicle, Ford introduced revolutionary new mass-production methods, including large production plants, the use of standardized, interchangeable parts and, in 1913, the world’s first moving assembly line for cars. Enormously influential in the industrial world, Ford was also outspoken in the political realm. Ford drew controversy for his pacifist stance during the early years of World War I and earned widespread criticism for his anti-Semitic views and writings. HENRY FORD: EARLY LIFE & ENGINEERING CAREER Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan. At 16, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm. Did You Know? The mass production techniques Henry Ford championed eventually allowed Ford Motor Company to turn out one Model T every...
Words: 1160 - Pages: 5
...Ford: Ride the Mustang Christian D. Smithson Florida State College at Jacksonville Author Note Smitcd42@students.fscj.edu Abstract Ford has been one of the most popular car manufacturers in the world for over 100 years. In this report we will dive deep in to the roots of the Ford Motor company and analyze the overall health of the company over the past 15 years. We will study how the financial crisis of 2008 impacted Ford and how they managed to make it through. Ford pioneered many of the techniques other car manufacturers use to make cars today lending to their great success. If it wasn’t for Ford the automotive industry would probably be very different today. Ford: Ride the Mustang On June 16, 1903 the Ford Motor Company gets incorporated. With only twelve investors owning 1,000 shares and empire is born. At 9:30 in the morning on this day, June 16, 1903, Henry Ford and other prospective stockholders in the Ford Motor Company meet in Detroit to sign the official paperwork required to create a new corporation. Twelve stockholders were listed on the forms, which were signed, notarized and sent to the office of Michigan’s secretary of state. Henry Ford (255 shares), Alexander Y. Malcomson (255 shares), John S. Gray (105 shares), John W. Anderson (50 shares), Horace Rackham (50 shares), Horace E. Dodge (50 shares), John F. Dodge (50 shares), Chrles T. Bennett (50 shares), Vernon C. Fry (50 shares), Albert Strelow (50 shares)...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...Ford Motor Company The ford motor company or known as Ford is an american, multinational automaker. Ford Motor Company is the fifth largest automaker based on the world wide sales. The headquarters is in Dearborn, Michigan, Its a suburb off of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and opened on June 16, 1903. The Ford Motor Company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the brand name of ford and most luxury cars under the lincoln brand. Ford also owns a Brazilian SUV manufacturer, troller, and a performance car manufacturer,FPV. also in the past it had produced tractors and automotive components. On June 16th, 1903 the Ford Motor Company did not know that it would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, as well as being one of the few to survive the Great Depression . It also is the largest familycontrolled company in the world, The Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 110 years. During the great depression, Ford like all other manufacturers, responded to the collapse in motor sale by reducing their scales of operations and laying off workers. By 1932 the unemployment rate had risen to 30% in Detroit, with thousands of families facing real hardships. Although ford did assist a small number of distressed families with loans and parcels of land to work themselves. With the majority of the thousands of unskilled workers who were laid off were left to cope on their own. However...
Words: 418 - Pages: 2
...Chandran V B14071 BM-B Contents Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Henry Ford – The man who divided the notion of modern economic and social system into Fordism and post-Fordism ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Assembly Line ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Vertical Integration ................................................................................................................................... 4 Profit Sharing ............................................................................................................................................ 5 General Motors – The David who beat the Goliath (Ford) ........................................................................... 5 Reorganization of GM into divisions with decentralized responsibility and centralized control ............. 7 Range of products with prices made affordable by financing .................................................................. 7 Introduction of new models annually ............
Words: 4328 - Pages: 18
...I INTRODUCTION Ford, Henry (1863-1947), American industrialist, best known for his pioneering achievements in the automobile industry. Ford was born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, and educated in district schools. He became a machinist's apprentice in Detroit at the age of 16. From 1888 to 1899 he was a mechanical engineer, and later chief engineer, with the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1896, after experimenting for years in his leisure hours, he completed the construction of his first automobile, the Quadricycle. In 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company. II AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION In 1913 Ford began using standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-line techniques in his plant. Although Ford neither originated nor was the first to employ such practices, he was chiefly responsible for their general adoption and for the consequent great expansion of American industry and the raising of the American standard of living. By early 1914 this innovation, although greatly increasing productivity, had resulted in a monthly labor turnover of 40 to 60 percent in his factory, largely because of the unpleasant monotony of assembly-line work and repeated increases in the production quotas assigned to workers. Ford met this difficulty by doubling the daily wage then standard in the industry, raising it from about $2.50 to $5. The net result was increased stability in his labor force and a substantial reduction in operating costs. These factors, coupled with...
Words: 730 - Pages: 3
...The automobile industry is a giant, serving both public and private sectors of the economy and consuming enumerable amounts of goods used in production, accounting for numerous additional jobs. The complexity of the industry has grown over the years along with the complexity of the products it produces. New means of advertising and other market strategies further complicate this already hugely intricate industry. On top of this, the industry continues to evolve on an almost yearly basis with the introduction of new “essential standard features” that one would not have even considered putting in a car five years earlier. Despite it’s relatively recent rapid growth in the past 100 years, the automobile industry, had a somewhat slower start. Once the industry was set in motion it unquestionably continued to grow and develop amazing machines that provide a great service to society and a great profit to its manufactures, but the first 130 years the automobile industry took to establish itself as an important part of the economy are just as important to fully understand the industry. The first self-propelled street vehicle was invented by the French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769. It was a military tractor used by the French army to haul artillery. It was destroyed later that same year in what is considered the first automobile accident; it crashed into a wall.2 The engine, like most of its time, was steam powered. Steam was the main source of power...
Words: 3109 - Pages: 13
...Henry Ford was one of the first American industrialists. He is best known for his revolutionary achievements in the automobile industry. His love for automobiles started at the age of sixteen. But before that, he was just another small-town farmer. The Ford farm was located near Dearborn, Michigan. It was here Henry Ford was born, on July 20,1863. He went to local district schools like the rest of the children from his town. In 1880 Henry became a machinist’s apprentice in Detroit, where he learned the basics. Then only two years later Ford became a certified machinist, but returned to the family farm. 1888 to 1899 he was a mechanical engineer, and later chief engineer, with the Edison Illuminating Company. Ford married in 1891 and he and his bride, Clara Bryant, left the farm in Michigan and moved to Detroit. His life prospered in Detroit and with the birth of his daughter Edsel, in 1893, many people believed he should get a job that was more stable than trying to build cars. Most believed they were simple toys and would never replace the horse-drawn carriage. Then on the morning of June 4, 1896 Henry finished his first ever car, which became known as the Quadricycle. He took it for a drive around his block as many people stared. It was only big enough for him, even though his wife was excited about taking a ride in the horseless carriage. Soon she would get the experience, when he made the seat bigger and took to car out to his parents home. Finally having his...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...orHENRY FORD AND THE MODEL T O n May 26, 1927, Henry Ford watched the fifteen millionth Model T Ford roll off the assembly line at his factory in Highland Park, Michigan. Since his ‘‘universal car’’ was the industrial success story of its age, the ceremony should have been a happy occasion. Yet Ford was probably wistful that day, too, knowing as he did that the long production life of the Model T was about to come to an end. He climbed into the car, a shiny black coupe, with his son, Edsel, the president of the Ford Motor Company. Together, they drove to the Dearborn Engineering Laboratory, fourteen miles away, and parked the T next to two other historic vehicles: the first automobile that Henry Ford built in 1896, and the 1908 prototype for the Model T. Henry himself took each vehicle for a short spin: the nation’s richest man driving the humble car that had made him the embodiment of the American dream. Henry Ford invented neither the automobile nor the assembly line, but recast each to dominate a new era. Indeed, no other individual in this century so completely transformed the nation’s 76 FORBES GREATEST BUSINESS STORIES OF ALL TIME way of life. By improving the assembly line so that the Model T could be produced ever more inexpensively, Ford placed the power of the internal combustion engine within reach of the average citizen. He transformed the automobile itself from a luxury to a necessity. The advent of the Model T seemed to renew a sense of independence...
Words: 5164 - Pages: 21
...The Big Things in Industrial /Manufacturing / Enterprise Systems – The Past, Present, and Future (An outline) By SaketPundlik Introduction The automobile industry has changed drastically over the past century. We have come a long way from the craft manufacturing days of P&L to flexible manufacturing applied by BMW. The journey from the days of skilled workers who used to handle making the whole car on their own to automated robots who assemble the car in less than a minute is a fascinating one. The foundation of this transition was laid down by Henry Ford in 1908 when he achieved complete interchangeability and the introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913. These concepts were taken even further by Alfred Sloan of General Motors. After combining Ford’s factory policies and Sloan’s marketing techniques we get mass production in its final mature form. However after decades of churning out millions of vehicles per year, Eiji Toyoda found faults in the system considered by many as the ultimate production system. He along with his production genius TaiichiOhno, soon developed the system which would once again revolutionize the automobile production system as the world would see it. By applying lean manufacturing in their home country of Japan, they and their company, Toyota, they were able to match the production volumes of GM with a workforce of almost half. Now, around the turn of the millennium there is considerable research going on in the field of flexible and reconfigurable...
Words: 3288 - Pages: 14
...coincident with its foundation. The main thing of interest in Kentucky's educational history, up to about 1820, is the development of this splendid system of higher education and the subsidiary academies were quite fully developed and reached their culmination during this period (Lewis, 1899). Dearborn city from geographical aspect is a span of 0.26 km2 covered by water and 24.4 square miles is land translating to a total 63 km2 area (PSAUS, 2015). Through the city, the Rouge River runs having a manmade waterfall at the Henry Ford estate for its powerhouse energy provision. This river is wide and channeled near Rouge Plant allowing access to Lake Freighter. The river's Upper, Lower and Middle Branches join in Dearborn City. The only major island is the Fordson Island which is 8.4 acres approximately 3 miles inland from Detroit River in River Rouge and was created in the year 1922. This took place to increase navigability for ships and it was done by engineers who dug a secondary trench redirecting the River Rouge hence it is owned privately making it prohibited from public access. It is a part of Dearborn city that lacks a front part the length of the Detroit River and this city is among those small municipalities that own property in other towns. This includes the 626-acre Camp Dearborn in Milford on 35 miles location from Dearborn City. The city also owned the now sold Dearborn Towers a complex apartment located in Clearwater, Florida. This makes Dearborn an even smaller number...
Words: 1416 - Pages: 6
...Ford Motor Company In today’s society it is a very common theme for men, especially hardworking men, to want a truck. That being said, what better company is there for a truck or a durable vehicle to not only improve image but use as an aid in everyday working conditions than Ford? We think that Ford Motor Company is a very good company to investigate and research because of the solid foundation it stands on and the rich history and tradition of such an illustrious company. Ford has been at the forefront of the automobile industry for the majority of its existence. They have been a trailblazer as far as mass production, and advancements in just about every way imaginable. For these reasons and more we will be doing our dijuno project on the Ford Motor Company. We will be exploring the consumer-brand relationships, breakdown the ads (testimonials), how their product raises self-esteem, and the product as an extended self. The company mainly targets the working male who has the need for a big truck to do heavy lifting and towing. The company has the richest history of any car company in the U.S. and for that reason we will give a very in depth and concise overview of such. Ford also appeals to those who have the upmost pride and support of the U.S. Other things we will be evaluating and analyzing in our PowerPoint presentation will include the target market for different demographics, how it caters to the needs of the consumers, the strategies and tactics used to appeal to...
Words: 2460 - Pages: 10
...A firm’s external environment involves both geographic factors and cultural elements. Location and resources are crucial geographic factors influencing both national and corporate success, with population characteristics and institutional arrangements making up the most meaningful components of the cultural elements affecting both the success of firms and of nations. Resources, population and institutional factors are dynamic, manifesting a number of feedback loops. For example, institutional incentives stimulate technological discoveries, which, in turn, enable firms to pursue resourcesubstitution policies, thereby modifying production possibilities. During the period after the second world war, at least through the 1980s, Japan and Japanese firms seemed to have successfully adapted themselves to the competitive forces of emerging global markets. In spite of a poor natural resource base, a dramatically altered set of institutional arrangements (a combination of democratic government, free-markets and the rule of law) created a propitious atmosphere for innovative behaviour. Nowhere were adaptations to this altered environment more apparent than in the Japanese automobile and semiconductor industries and no firm was more successful, admired and emulated than Toyota Motor Corporation. Indicative of these changes is a Fortune magazine article, published several years ago, which provided a popular assessment of the successes of Toyota. It reported that Toyota was named the most...
Words: 5964 - Pages: 24
