It is hard for modern people to imagine life one hundred years ago. There was no television, no plastic, no ATMs, and no DVDs. Illnesses like tuberculosis, diphtheria, and pneumonia often meant death. Cloning existed only in science fiction, not to mention computers and the Internet.
Today, our workplaces are equipped with assembly lines, fax machines, and computers. Our daily lives are made comfortable by air conditioners and cell phones. Antibiotics have led to a long list of miracle drugs. Bypass surgery has saved millions. The discovery of DNA has revolutionized how scientists think about new therapies. Humanity has finally stepped onto the magical and mysterious Moon. With the rapid changes we have been experiencing, anticipation for the future is higher than ever.
A revolutionary manufacturing process made it possible for almost anyone to own a car. Henry Ford was the man who put the world on wheels.
When singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Henry Ford who most influenced all manufacturing everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make cars – one that, strangely enough, originated in slaughterhouses.
Back in the early 1900s, slaughterhouses used what could be called a "disassembly line." The carcass of a slain steer or pig was moved past various meat-cutters, each of whom cut off only a certain portion. Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker completely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a conveyor, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it – the same one each time. Professor David Hounshell of the University of Delaware, an expert on industrial development, describes what happened:
"The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person."
Within a year, the assembly time was reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Partially assembled vehicles, hooked together by ropes, were towed past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It wasn't long before Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year – a remarkable achievement then. This new system was so efficient and economical that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $260, putting them within reach of those who previously could not afford them. Soon, auto makers worldwide copied him. In fact, he encouraged them by writing a book about his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile had arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation, everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines.
Edsel Ford, Henry's great-grandson and a Ford vice president, said: "I think my great-grandfather would just be amazed at how far technology has come."
Many of today's innovations come from Japan. Norman Bodek, who publishes books about manufacturing processes, finds this ironic. On a recent trip to Japan, he talked to two top officials of Toyota.
"When I asked them where these secrets came from, where their ideas came from to manufacture in a totally different way, they laughed and said, 'Well, we just read it in Henry Ford's book from 1926, Today and Tomorrow.'"
His company has reissued the book because, he says, manufacturers everywhere can still learn from Henry Ford.