FORD STORY HOW TO MAKE CAR AFFORDABLE

While Henry Ford was not the first to attempt the production of low-cost, reliable automobiles, he was the first to make cars affordable to average Americans. Born into a family of Michigan farmers in 1863, Ford quickly developed a dislike for farm labor. As a mechanically-inclined young man, he built and drove racing cars. It was not until he was forty years of age that he incorporated the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1908, the Ford Company unveiled the Model T only in black colour, a four-cylinder, 20-horsepower car that cost between $825 and $850. Developing an assembly line mode of production, Ford was able to decrease the price eight years later to $345-$360. Ford's output grew from just over 32,000 cars in 1910 to nearly 735,000 cars in 1916. His Highland Park and River Rouge factories would become famous for their low-cost, standardized mass production. Obsessed with wasted worker motions, Ford divided labor into small, specialized tasks, and installed conveyor belts to carry parts into the assembly lines in 1912. The system became one continuous, moving chain by 1914. These production techniques further lowered unit production costs and allowed Ford to thrive.