Henry Ford Biography

Henry Ford was a North American businessman founder of the company “Ford Motor Company” considered the pioneer of the modern production chains used for mass production and one of the greatest precursors of industrial engineering.

He was born on July 30, 1863, in Greenfield, United States, belonged to a family of low economic resources, consisting of William Ford and Mary Litogot. He had four brothers: Margaret, Jane, William, and Robert.

In 1873, Ford saw for the first time a self-propelled machine: it was a stationary steam machine, which could be used for agricultural activities. The operator of the steam machine Fred Reden had set it up on wheels that had been hooked by a chain. As Ford was delighted with the machine, Reden taught him how to operate it. Later, Ford would say that that experience was the one that taught him that he was instinctively an Engineer.

At the beginning of his adolescence, his father gave him a wristwatch and when he was 15, he had already dismantled and reassembled many times the watches of friends and neighbors, an experience that gave him a good reputation as a watch repairman.

In the year of 1876 his mother died, an event that left the young man destroyed, because it was his mother with whom he spent the most time on the farm. Three years later, he left his home to travel to Detroit and work as a machinist apprentice. First in “James F. Flower & Bros” and then in “Detroit Dry Dock Co”.

In 1882, he would return to Dearborn to work on the farm and be in charge of handling the Westinghouse portable steam engine. Due to the experience acquired operating machines during that time, he was hired by the Westinghouse Electric Company, giving service to the steam engines.

He married Clara Bryant on April 11, 1988. She was his lifelong companion and had only one son, called Edsel.

In 1981, Ford managed to hold the position of Engineer in the Edison Company, and 12 years later, in 1893, he would be promoted to Chief Engineer, so he began to have more time and of course more money to devote to his own experiments with gasoline engines, which culminated in 1896 with the invention of his own self-propelled vehicle called “Quadricycle”, and made his first successful test on June 4 of that same year.

In 1899, in collaboration with other investors formed the Detroit Automobile Company, which ended up in bankruptcy very soon because Ford to continue improving the prototypes, neglected the sale of cars.

Ford made races between his car and other manufacturers to demonstrate the superiority of its design, with this interest in race cars, he would create the “Henry Ford Company”, and would renounce due to disagreements with his partners. This made him determined that he never again would be an employee and the company was reorganized with the name of Cadillac.

In 1903, Henry Ford succeeded with his third business project “The Ford Motor Company” founded on June 16 of the same year joined with 11 other investors and with an initial investment of 28,000 US dollars. Ford was also one of the first drivers of the Indianapolis 500.

Ten years later, he placed the mobile assembly bands, which allowed him to increase production.

In 1914, Henry Ford surprised the world when he offered his workers a salary of $ 5 a day. This method proved to be extremely beneficial as the best mechanics in Detroit began to move to the Ford Company, bringing with them their human capital and experience represented in excellent workmanship, increasing productivity and reducing training costs. Ford called this strategy, “Salary Motivation.” The use of Vertical integration in the Company was also very successful when Ford built a gigantic factory in which raw materials came in and finished cars left.

On October 1, 1908, the Ford T appeared on the market, presenting a lot of improvements. For example, it had the steering wheel to the left, the whole engine and transmission were closed, the 4 cylinders were embedded in a solid block and the suspension worked by means of two semi-elliptical springs. The car was economical, very easy to drive and repair. As early as 1920 most drivers knew how to drive the Ford T.

Ford also managed to distribute mass advertising in Detroit, ratifying that each newspaper would show stories and announcements about the new product. The method used by Ford on local dealers allowed and enabled the car to be available in every city in the United States.

In 1918, Henry Ford leaves the Presidency of his Company in the hands of his son Edsel Ford, but always exercising control over the final decisions. Between the two of them, they bought the remaining shares in favor of the investors, making all the shares of the company absolutely owned by the family. In May 1943, his son Edsel Ford died of stomach cancer at the age of 49. Having to take again the Presidency of the Company. Henry Ford was a great contributor to Industrial Engineering at the beginning of the 20th century. He contributed to this Engineering his idea of ​​manufacturing in a continuous process, this contribution contributed to the yield and increase of the production.

Ford used conveyor belts to give impetus to the concept of mass production in the sense of improving productivity and reducing costs. The key to Henry Ford’s success was in the procedures of reducing manufacturing costs with mass production, also called Fordism. Ford’s prominent role in the evolution of the modern industrial economy suggested the coining of the term Fordism to describe the predominant socio-economic model in the more developed countries of the 20th century.

On April 7, 1947, at the age of 83, Henry Ford would die in Fair Lane, United States, due to cerebral hemorrhage and is buried in the Detroit Ford cemetery.

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