AUTOMOTIVE
OCTOBER 18, 2021
Inspiring Story Of Ford Motor Company
The inspiring story of Ford motor company that achieved global success from many ups and downs for more than one hundred years.
The Ford Motor company was founded by Henry Ford on June 16, 1903. It is an American automaker and the fifth largest in the world based on worldwide vehicle sales. Ford now encompasses two brands : Ford and Lincoln. They once owned 5 luxury brands : Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Mercury.
Henry Ford built his first automobile at his home in Detroit in 1896. His initial effort to automobile industry was the Detroit Automobile Company founded in 1899 and then reorganized in 1901 as the Henry Ford Company.
On June 16, 1903 the Ford Motor Company was incorporated with 12 investors owning a total of 1000 shares. John S. Gray was elected as president, Ford vice president and James Couzens as secretary at the first stockholder meeting on June 18. In 1906, Gray died and his position as Ford’s president was taken over by Ford himself.
In that 1903 year, the Model A Ford mobile is introduced and 1.708 cars are produced. In 1908 Model T is introduced and 15 million are produced through 1927.
In 1913, Ford introduced the world’s first moving assembly line which reduced assembly time from 12.5 hours to 2 hours 40 minutes and annual production reached to 202.667 units per year. By 1820, the production had reached one million units a year. The company was able to achieve this by developing all basic techniques of the assembly line and mass production.
The assembly line system transformed the industry, making companies not applying it facing the risk of bankruptcy. In 1920, there were 200 US car makers but only 17 of them survived in 1940.
By the year 1919, Henry’s son, Edsel Ford succeeded his father as president of the company, although Henry still control the management.
During the World War II, the company produced thousand of tanks and truck, engines and hundred of thousands of parts, gun mounts and machine tools for the war.
The Willow Run factory manufactured the B-24 bombers with over 8.000 units. The company ranked third among corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.
In 1943, Edsel Ford died and Henry decided to resume direct control of the company, but this was a bad move as he was already 78 and had health problems. His grandson Henry Ford II, took over the top position of the company.
Henry Ford died on April 7, 1947. Thousand of mourners came at the public viewing at Greenfield Village. The funeral service for him was held on April 9, 1947 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit with 20.000 people came and attracted national attention of around 7 million people nationwide.
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