Fordism

It is well know that the model T Ford was created by Henry Ford in the early 1900’s. It popularity struck Americans where it counted; in their wallets. The Model T was created by Henry Ford so that all Americans, not just the rich, could have a chance at owning an automobile. Most automobiles at the turn of the century cost somewhere in the range of $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 where the Model T’s off the floor price ran closer to $300.00. So how was Ford able to produce such an affordable car? The real story is not the Model T Ford at all. How Henry Ford was able to not only change the way a car was produced but his ability to change the entire social and economical structure of the United States would be his defining moment.

Unlike common belief, Ford was not the first auto maker to use an assembly line to manufacture cars. Oldsmobile began using assembly lines in 1901. However Ford did something that drastically sped up the process. Ford mass produced parts for his vehicles and created the moving assembly line which took the average build time of one vehicle from twelve hours down to one and one half hours. By doing this Ford was able to speed up production and lower production cost. Ford could now not only sell the Model T for a significantly lower price than other automobiles but he could sell thousands more than his competitors. By using the continuous flow assembly line Ford was able to increase his measure of productivity by 75% over 10 years. Ford could generate 9000 automobiles a day by 1925.

Ford did have one problem with this new type of assembly line. This process made specific jobs very boring and tiresome for his line employees. He began to see great turnover and unrest in employment. So instead of letting this continue Ford decided to change his structure to retain employees. He changed the typical 48 hour work week to a 40 hour work week and created the 5 day work week instead of a 6 day work week. This was practically unheard of at the turn of the century. People were very used to working all the time, even children worked instead of going to school. Ford also doubled his employees’ salaries making them the highest paid industrial workers in the world. As this allowed Ford to keep his employees happy, it also created what is know today as Fordism.

Fordism is defined as the economic philosophy that widespread prosperity and high corporate profits can be achieved by high wages that allow the workers to purchase the output they produce, such as automobiles( ). This theory of Fordism began to mirror within most if not all manufacturing departments in the U.S. The Fordist production system has four key elements. First, it is characterized by a distinctive division of labor - the separation of different work tasks between different groups of workers - in which unskilled workers execute simple, repetitive tasks and skilled technical and managerial workers undertake functions related to research, design, quality control, finance, coordination, and marketing( ). This type of division of labor is still used today in almost all types of manufacturing. Second, parts and components are highly standardized. Although popular, this element is slowly being replaced by an emerging popularity of customized and specific order request. Third, it is organized not around groups of similar machinery, but machines arranged in the correct sequence required manufacturing a product. Finally, the various parts of the production process are linked together by a moving conveyor belt - the assembly line - to facilitate the quick and efficient fulfillment of tasks( ). This final step was a milestone for Henry Ford. This allowed him the speed and efficiency he was looking for.

Fords employees were now happy workers with more free time and enough money in their pockets to reinvest it into a product they were working to produce. This led to a new age of social equality and allowed any average American to obtain and have the time to use the most important status symbol of the time. Americans were buying automobiles like candy, some of them placing more importance on owning a

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