My Life and Work

“In the piston-rod assembly, even under the old plan, this operation took only three minutes. There were two benches and twenty-eight men in all; they assembled one hundred seventy-five pistons and rods in a nine-hour day. There was no inspection, and many of the piston and rod assemblies came back as defective. The foreman, examining the operation, found that four hours out of a nine-hour day were spent in walking.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution

DUR_ENDURING

28 men to 7, 175 to 2600 daily output

“In 1905-1906 we made only two models, and our sales dropped to 1,599 cars. Some said it was because we had not brought out new models. I thought it was because our cars were too expensive, they did not appeal to the 95 per cent. I changed the policy in the next year. For 1906-1907 we entirely left off making touring cars and made three models of runabouts and roadsters.”— Henry Ford

III. Starting the Real Business

Strategy & Decision Making · Economics & Markets

DUR_ENDURING

Price cut: 1,599 to 8,423 cars sold

“At the time of the last analysis of employed, there were 9,563 sub-standard men. Of these, 123 had crippled or amputated arms, forearms, or hands. One had both hands off. There were 4 totally blind men, 207 blind in one eye, 253 with one eye nearly blind, 37 deaf and dumb, 60 epileptics, 4 with both legs or feet missing, 234 with one foot or leg missing. We found that 670 jobs could be filled by legless men, 2,637 by one-legged men, 2 by armless men, 715 by one-armed men, and 10 by blind men.”— Henry Ford

VII. The Terror of the Machine

Operations & Execution · Leadership & Management

DUR_ENDURING

9,563 disabled workers at full wages

“Along about April 1, 1913, we first tried the experiment of an assembly line. We tried it on assembling the flywheel magneto. We had previously assembled the fly-wheel magneto in the usual method. With one workman doing a complete job he could turn out from thirty-five to forty pieces in a nine-hour day, or about twenty minutes to an assembly. What he did alone was then spread into twenty-nine operations; that cut down the assembly time to thirteen minutes, ten seconds.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Creativity & Innovation

DUR_ENDURING

20 min to 5 min via task subdivision

“Therefore in 1909 I announced one morning, without any previous warning, that in the future we were going to build only one model, that the model was going to be Model T, and that the chassis would be exactly the same for all cars, and I remarked: 'Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.'”— Henry Ford

IV. The Secret of Manufacturing and Serving

Strategy & Decision Making · Business & Entrepreneurship

DUR_ENDURING

Any color, so long as it's black

“The factory keeps no record of experiments. The foremen and superintendents remember what has been done. If a certain method has formerly been tried and failed, somebody will remember it, but I am not particularly anxious for the men to remember what someone else has tried to do in the past, for then we might quickly accumulate far too many things that could not be done. That is one of the troubles with extensive records.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Psychology & Behavior

DUR_ENDURING

No failure records to avoid limiting belief

“I spent twelve years before I had a Model T, which is what is known to-day as the Ford car, that suited me. We did not attempt to go into real production until we had a real product. That product has not been essentially changed.”— Henry Ford

III. Starting the Real Business

Strategy & Decision Making · Business & Entrepreneurship

DUR_ENDURING

12 years development before production

“The idea came in a general way from the overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Creativity & Innovation · Operations & Execution

DUR_ENDURING

Chicago beef packers inspired assembly line

“The principles of assembly are these: (1) Place the tools and the men in the sequence of the operation so that each component part shall travel the least possible distance while in the process of finishing. (2) Use work slides or some other form of carrier so that when a workman completes his operation, he drops the part always in the same place, which place must always be the most convenient place to his hand, and if possible have gravity carry the part to the next workman for his operation.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Business & Entrepreneurship

DUR_ENDURING

Three principles of assembly

“In 1905 I was at a motor race at Palm Beach. There was a big smash-up and a French car was wrecked. I picked up a little valve strip stem. It was very light and very strong. I asked what it was made of. Nobody knew. I gave the stem to my assistant. 'Find out all about this,' I told him. 'That is the kind of material we ought to have in our cars.' He found eventually that it was a French steel and that there was vanadium in it.”— Henry Ford

IV. The Secret of Manufacturing and Serving

Technology & Engineering · Creativity & Innovation

DUR_ENDURING

Vanadium discovery from French car wreck

“The savings came not from exploiting workers but from removing waste. In the beginning we tried to get machinists. As the necessity for production increased it became apparent not only that enough machinists were not to be had, but also that skilled men were not necessary in production. We have not taken skill out of work. We have put in skill. We have put a higher skill into planning, management, and tool building, and the results of that skill are enjoyed by the man who is not skilled.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Leadership & Management · Technology & Engineering

DUR_ENDURING

Skill moved into planning, not removed

“In the success of the Ford car the early provision of service was an outstanding element. Most of the expensive cars of that period were ill provided with service stations. If your car broke down you had to depend on the local repair man. If the local repair man were a forehanded sort of person, keeping on hand a good stock of parts, the owner was lucky.”— Henry Ford

II. What I Learned About Business

Business & Entrepreneurship · Strategy & Decision Making

DUR_ENDURING

Service network as competitive moat

“Take castings. Castings has always been a wasteful process and is so old that it has accumulated many traditions which make improvements extraordinarily difficult to bring about. I believe one authority on moulding declared, before we started our experiments, that any man who said he could reduce costs within half a year wrote himself down as a fraud. Our foundry used to be much like other foundries.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Technology & Engineering

DUR_ENDURING

95% unskilled via machinery

“What I most realized about business in that year is this: (1) That finance is given a place ahead of work and therefore tends to kill the work and destroy the fundamental of service. (2) That thinking first of money instead of work brings on fear of failure and this fear blocks every avenue of business, it makes a man afraid of competition, of changing his methods, or of doing anything which might change his condition.”— Henry Ford

II. What I Learned About Business

Business & Entrepreneurship · Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior

DUR_ENDURING

Three conclusions about business

“The Ford factories and enterprises have no organization, no specific duties attaching to any position, no line of succession or of authority, very few titles, and no conferences. A group of men, wholly intent upon getting work done, have no difficulty in seeing that the work is done. They do not get into trouble about the limits of authority, because they are not thinking of titles.”— Henry Ford

VI. Machines and Men

Leadership & Management · Strategy & Decision Making

DUR_ENDURING

No org chart, no titles, no conferences

“Ask a hundred people how they want a particular article made. About eighty will not know; they will leave it to you. Fifteen will think that they must say something, while five will really have preferences and reasons. The ninety-five, made up of those who do not know and admit it and the fifteen who do not know but do not admit it, constitute the real market for any product.”— Henry Ford

III. Starting the Real Business

Strategy & Decision Making · Business & Entrepreneurship

DUR_ENDURING

95% don't know what they want

“I recall that a machine manufacturer was once called into conference on the building of a special machine. The specifications called for an output of two hundred per hour. 'This is a mistake,' said the manufacturer, 'you mean two hundred a day, no machine can be forced to two hundred an hour.' The company officer sent for the man who had designed the machine and they called his attention to the specification. He said: 'Yes, what about it?' 'It can't be done,' said the manufacturer positively.”

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Creativity & Innovation

DUR_ENDURING

Built machine first, proved expert wrong

“If a device would save in time just 10 per cent. or increase results 10 per cent., then its absence is always a 10 per cent. tax. If the time of a person is worth fifty cents an hour, a 10 per cent. saving is worth five cents an hour. Save ten steps a day for each of twelve thousand employees and you will have saved fifty miles of wasted motion and misspent energy.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Operations & Execution · Economics & Markets

DUR_ENDURING

10% improvement = 10% tax if not captured

“We have only the clerical help that is absolutely required; we have no elaborate records of any kind, and consequently no red tape. We make the individual responsibility complete. The workman is absolutely responsible for his work. The straw boss is responsible for the workmen under him. The foreman is responsible for his group. The department head is responsible for the department. The general superintendent is responsible for the whole factory.”— Henry Ford

VI. Machines and Men

Leadership & Management · Operations & Execution

DUR_ENDURING

No elaborate records, complete responsibility

“None of our men are experts. We have most unfortunately found it necessary to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an expert, because no one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job. A man who knows a job sees so much more to be done than he has done, that he is always pressing forward and never gives up an instant of thought to how good and how efficient he is. The moment one gets into the expert state of mind a great number of things become impossible.”— Henry Ford

V. Getting Into Production

Psychology & Behavior · Leadership & Management

DUR_ENDURING

Fire experts, keep learners