Thus Henry Ford did not invent standardization; be merely applied this great American idea to a product to which, because of the delicate labor required, it seemed at first unadapted.He soon found that it was cheaper to ship the parts of ten cars to a central point than to ship ten completed cars.There would therefore be large savings in making his parts in particular factories and shipping them to assembling establishments.In this way the completed cars would always be near their markets.Large production would mean that he could purchase his raw materials at very low prices; high wages meant that he could get the efficient labor which was demanded by his rapid fire method of campaign.It was necessary to plan the making of every part to the minutest detail, to have each part machined to its exact size, and to have every screw, bolt, and bar precisely interchangeable.About the year 1907 the Ford factory was systematized on this basis.In that twelvemonth it produced 10,000 machines, each one the absolute counterpart of the other 9999.American manufacturers until then had been content with a few hundred a year! From that date the Ford production has rapidly increased; until, in 1916, there were nearly 4,000,000 automobiles in the United States--more than in all the rest of the world put together--of which one-sixth were the output of the Ford factories.Many other American manufacturers followed the Ford plan, with the result that American automobiles are duplicating the story of American bicycles; because of their cheapness and serviceability, they are rapidly dominating the markets of the world.In the Great War American machines have surpassed all in the work done under particularly exacting circumstances.
A glimpse of a Ford assembling room--and we can see the same process in other American factories--makes clear the reasons for this success.In these rooms no fitting is done; the fragments of automobiles come in automatically and are simply bolted together.
First of all the units are assembled in their several departments.The rear axles, the front axles, the frames, the radiators, and the motors are all put together with the same precision and exactness that marks the operation of the completed car.Thus the wheels come from one part of the factory and are rolled on an inclined plane to a particular spot.The tires are propelled by some mysterious force to the same spot; as the two elements coincide, workmen quickly put them together.In a long room the bodies are slowly advanced on moving platforms at the rate of about a foot per minute.At the side stand groups of men, each prepared to do his bit, their materials being delivered at convenient points by chutes.As the tops pass by these men quickly bolt them into place, and the completed body is sent to a place where it awaits the chassis.This important section, comprising all the machinery, starts at one end of a moving platform as a front and rear axle bolted together with the frame.
As this slowly ,advances, it passes under a bridge containing a gasoline tank, which is quickly adjusted.Farther on the motor is swung over by a small hoist and lowered into position on the frame.Presently the dash slides down and is placed in position behind the motor.As the rapidly accumulating mechanism passes on, different workmen adjust the mufflers, exhaust pipes, the radiator, and the wheels which, as already indicated, arrive on the scene completely tired.Then a workman seats himself on the gasoline tank, which contains a small quantity of its indispensable fuel, starts the engine, and the thing moves out the door under its own power.It stops for a moment outside; the completed body drops down from the second floor, and a few bolts quickly put it securely in place.The workman drives the now finished Ford to a loading platform, it is stored away in a box car, and is started on its way to market.At the present time about 2000 cars are daily turned out in this fashion.The nation demands them at a more rapid rate than they can be made.
Herein we have what is probably America's greatest manufacturing exploit.And this democratization of the automobile comprises more than the acme of efficiency in the manufacturing art.The career of Henry Ford has a symbolic significance as well.It may be taken as signalizing the new ideals that have gained the upper hand in American industry.We began this review of American business with Cornelius Vanderbilt as the typical figure.It is a happy augury that it closes with Henry Ford in the foreground.
Vanderbilt, valuable as were many of his achievements, represented that spirit of egotism that was rampant for the larger part of the fifty years following the war.He was always seeking his own advantage, and he never regarded the public interest as anything worth a moment's consideration.With Ford, however, the spirit of service has been the predominating motive.
His earnings have been immeasurably greater than Vanderbilt's;his income for two years amounts to nearly Vanderbilt's total fortune at his death; but the piling up of riches has been by no means his exclusive purpose.He has recognized that his workmen are his partners and has liberally shared with them his increasing profits.His money is not the product of speculation;Ford is a stranger to Wall Street and has built his business independently of the great banking interest.He has enjoyed no monopoly, as have the Rockefellers; there are more than three hundred makers of automobiles in the United States alone.He has spurned all solicitations to join combinations.Far from asking tariff favors he has entered European markets and undersold English, French, and German makers on their own ground.Instead of taking advantage of a great public demand to increase his prices, Ford has continuously lowered them.Though his idealism may have led him into an occasional personal absurdity, as a business man he may be taken as the full flower of American manufacturing genius.Possibly America, as a consequence of universal war, is advancing to a higher state of industrial organization; but an economic system is not entirely evil that produces such an industry as that which has made the automobile the servant of millions of Americans.
