Ford Automobile - History
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Henry Fords First Automobile , the Quadricycle was completed in February of 1896 while Henry was employed as chief engineer at Thomas Edison‘s Edison Illumination Company . Henry left the Edison company in 1899 to found the Detroit Motor Company . In 1901 the Detroit Motor Company was closed and reopened as the Henry Ford Company . Due to disagreements with share holders Henry Ford left the Henry Ford Company in 1902 . (That company then became the Cadillac Automobile Company).
Henry then built the famous “999” racer and after it won a race in October of 1902 , Henry was able to get the financing and backing he needed to found the Ford Motor Company in 1903 . Henry’s first automobile produced in his new company was the first Model “A”.
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The Dodge Brothers machine shop were hired to build many of the parts for Henrys automobiles and agreed to take a 10% share in the Ford Motor Company as payment for the first parts they made . Henry Ford is credited as “The” inventor of the automobile because of his many major contributions to that industry in it early years . Henry was and inventor as well as an engineer , and has over 160 patents to his personal credit . The “Model T” Ford is said to have revolutionized the transportation of North America . Henry’s designs of the assembly lines to produce the Model T , change the manufacturing industry through out the world , and the basic‘s of his system us use in factories even today . His assembly line production enabled the cars to be produced faster and at a lower cost while improving the already high quality of Henry’s Model T’s . he was able to bring the prices down so that the average worker could afford to buy them . Henry also increased the wages of his workers so that they could afford to buy the cars they built .
Henry lowered the work day to 8 hours and the work week from six to five Days . He also started the 3 shift per day system . The higher wages and better conditions attracted the best trades people to come to work for Henry . People also stayed long term which saved training time over all and meant that the workers gained experience . This improved production time while still maintaining the high quality standards that Henry insisted on for his vehicles . His assembly line and workers worked so well that two car per minute rolled off the line and the average production was 12 hours per vehicle . By 1916 over ˝ of all the cars on the roads of North America were Model T Ford’s
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In 1922 Henry acquired Lincoln Motor Company in 1922 . Lincoln had been founded by Henry Leland who in 1903 had taken over the Henry Ford Company after Henry Ford left , and changed it to the Cadillac . In 1925 Henry Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company . The Ford Tri-motor was the first successful passenger plane . It held 12 passengers . Ford Motor company also produced most of the B24 Bombers used by the allied forces in WW2 . Ford also made jeep’s for the army , for the war effort .
Ford Motor Company manufactures automobiles in many parts of the world and sells vehicles in over 130 countries . Ford had dealings with Mazda for some time and from 1979 had a 7% interest which has grown to 33% interest by 2002 .
In 1989 Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar and took over Aston-Martin in 1991 .
Ford Motor Company purchased Volvo Car division in 1999 . In 2000 Ford bought Land Rover . Ford has since sold Land Rover and Jaguar to Tata and has also sold part of Aston-Martin . In 2007 Ford Motor Company received more awards for quality than any other auto maker on earth .
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In the sales recession of 2009 Ford was affected the least of any company as the quality of their new vehicles help to keep sales more stable than other companies , though sales were down for all companies .
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