English Original
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.
中文翻译
现代人很难想象一百年前的生活。没有电视，没有塑料，没有自动取款机，也没有DVD。像肺结核、白喉和肺炎这样的疾病通常意味着死亡。克隆只存在于科幻小说中，更不用说电脑和互联网了。
今天，我们的工作场所配备了流水线、传真机和电脑。空调和手机让我们的日常生活变得舒适。抗生素催生了一系列神奇的药物。心脏搭桥手术拯救了数百万人的生命。DNA的发现彻底改变了科学家对新疗法的思考方式。人类终于踏上了神奇而神秘的月球。随着我们经历的快速变化，人们对未来的期待比以往任何时候都高。
一项革命性的制造工艺使得几乎每个人都能拥有一辆汽车。亨利·福特就是那个给世界装上轮子的人。
在挑选那些对我们所有人的生活都产生了影响的人物时，你不能忽略亨利·福特。从现在起一百年后的历史学家很可能会得出结论：对世界各地所有制造业影响最大的是亨利·福特，甚至直到今天依然如此，因为他引入了一种新的汽车制造方法——奇怪的是，这种方法起源于屠宰场。
早在20世纪初，屠宰场使用的可以称为“拆卸线”。宰好的牛或猪的胴体被移动经过各个切肉工，每个工人只切下特定的部分。福特将这个过程颠倒过来，想看看是否能加快汽车发动机一个叫做磁电机的部件的生产。他没有让每个工人完整组装一个磁电机，而是将其一个部件放在传送带上，当它经过时，每个工人都给它添加另一个部件——每次都是添加同一个部件。特拉华大学的工业发展专家戴维·亨谢尔教授描述了当时的情况：
“前一天，完成整个组装过程的工人平均每20分钟组装一台。但在那天，在流水线上，装配团队平均每人每13分10秒就组装一台。”
不到一年，组装时间就减少到了五分钟。1913年，福特进行了全面改革。用绳子连接的部分组装好的车辆被拖过工人身边，工人们一次只安装一个部件。不久，福特公司每年就能生产出数十万辆汽车——这在当时是一项非凡的成就。这个新系统如此高效和经济，以至于他将汽车价格削减了一半，降至260美元，让那些以前买不起的人也能买得起。很快，全世界的汽车制造商都开始效仿他。事实上，他通过撰写一本名为《今天与明天》的书来介绍自己的创新，以此鼓励他们这样做。汽车时代到来了。今天，在机器人和其他形式自动化的辅助下，从烤面包机到香水，一切都是在流水线上生产的。
亨利的曾孙、福特公司副总裁埃德塞尔·福特说：“我想我的曾祖父会对技术发展到如此程度感到惊讶。”
今天的许多创新来自日本。出版制造工艺书籍的诺曼·博德克认为这具有讽刺意味。最近一次日本之行中，他与丰田的两位高层官员进行了交谈。
“当我问他们这些秘密从何而来，他们从何处获得灵感以完全不同的方式制造时，他们笑了，说，‘嗯，我们只是从亨利·福特1926年的书《今天与明天》里读到的。’”
他的公司已经重新发行了这本书，因为他说，世界各地的制造商仍然可以向亨利·福特学习。