Automobile production Ford Model

Tin Lizzie (Model T) automobile (Henry Ford) Ford s development of an affordable automobile, manufactured using his assembly-line production methods, revolutionize the U.S. car industry. 

Vertical Integration A business model in which one company owns many (or all) of the means of production of the many goods that comprise its product line. For example, founder Henry Ford designed Ford Motor Company s early River Rogue plant so that coal, iron ore and other needed raw materials arrived at one end of the plant and were processed into steel, which was then converted onsite into finished components. At the final stage of the plant, completed automobiles were assembled. 

DuPont Canada has developed a new business model that redefines its relationship to its key customers through managing material supply chains. Working with the Ford Motor Company on processes for applying automobile finishes, the firm found it could reduce the amount of paint used, close-loop the painting system, turn waste streams into useful products, and, thereby, develop new ways to generate revenue (GEMI, 2001). 

Although both are closely linked in our minds and by our own experience, the petroleum industry predated the automobile industry by half a century. The first oil well, drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Edwin Drake in 1859, provided rock oil, as it was then called, on a large scale. This was quickly followed by the development of a process to refine it so as to produce kerosene. As a fuel for oil lamps, kerosene burned with a bright, clean flame and soon replaced the more expensive whale oil then in use. Other oil fields were discovered, and uses for other petroleum products were found—illuminating gas lit city streets, and oil heated homes and powered locomotives. There were oil refineries long before there were automobiles. By the time the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford s assembly line in 1908, John D. Rockefeller s Standard Oil holdings had already made him one of the half-dozen wealthiest people in the world. 

The data plotted in Figure 2 show an example of one such discontinuous or radical change. Major product and process innovations by the Ford Motor Company are plotted over the period from 1900-1940. [8] The period 1900-1909 saw Ford introduce seven different models of automobile with cumulative production volume slightly exceeding 40,000 units. In 1908, the... 

The full-scale production of the Model T automobile made Mr. Ford famous, but the Model T was not his first attempt at mass producing cars. In fact, there was a Model A, a Model B, a Model C, and so on. Thanks to Mr. Ford s engineering genius, cars became affordable enough for the average American to purchase. 

It was Henry Ford who sponsored and championed the assembly line, promoting an industry standard known as Fordism, which prioritized high wages for employees and cheap, accessible products for consumers. Ford also implemented the first vertically integrated factory, with steel and glass developed in-house. Thus Ford developed the first affordable automobile, the Model T, which was introduced in 1908. As part of the standardization process, Ford later had the Model T painted only in black because that was the cheapest color to use. He famously said Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black (Figure 1.7). 

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