Ford Motor Company (original) (raw)

Legacy of Fordism and Product Life Cycle Management in the Modern Economy

Management and Production Engineering Review, 2021

Received:25 March 2020 Acepted: 30 December 2020 Abstract The industrial revolution taking place since the 18th century has brought the global economies to the stage of mass production, mass industrialization and spreading ideas connected with its efficiency. The most famous of its kind is Fordism and its modern variations called PostFordism or Neo-Fordism. We can still see traditional way of producing things in some parts of the world, and the leading economies are using Ford’s ideas or the modifications of the Ford’s concepts. But there is a question about the place of these models in the modern economy, especially because mass-production causes mass-waste and modern societies has woken up to the reality of the global pollution, climate change or just the simple fact that the amount of the raw materials is limited. The social mood is slowly changing so there should be a change to the way we produce and consume things as well. There is a question: can we proceed within existing mod...

Global restructuring and the auto industry

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2010

It is a time of economic restructuring in the world's car industry and the implication for individual nations and regions is profound. In the rapidly expanding markets of Brazil, India and China, there is expansion of capacity with new plants being opened as local markets grow on the back of rising domestic incomes. The pattern in the traditional markets of the West is the reverse, with significant contraction and even plant closures by the traditional volume producers.

Analysis of Henry Ford’s contribution to production and management

Pomorstvo

Henry Ford is widely known as the car constructor, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, the pioneer of mass production and the inventor of the moving assembly line, which many consider as the world’s greatest contribution to manufacturing. In 1908, Ford started production of the Ford Model T, which has become one of the most successful automobile in automotive history. But his contribution far surpasses these excellent accomplishments. What are not well known are Ford’s contributions to the just-in-time production, product platforming, mass customization, vertical integration, designs for maintainability, ergonomic considerations, employee management and other features of the manufacture. The Ford’s production system has become the characteristic American mode of production widespread all over the world.

The Changing Dynamics of Innovation in the Auto Supply Chian

Environmental policies like the CAFÉ Standards have become the largest single driver of product and technology innovation in the auto industry. They have also triggered a new level of materials competition, notably between steel and aluminum. Considerable social science attention has been placed on the shift in governance models in the supply chain. Much less attention has been drawn to the fundamental developments in advanced materials and new engineering software tools that are key enablers of these changes to business models. As larger responsibilities have devolved to suppliers for research and product development, much of the burden of change and innovation derived from environmental policy-driven adaptations has fallen on supply chain partners. Materials competition is ultimately competition between competing production systems. Much was made of the announcement in the Spring of 2014 about the new aluminum Ford F-150 truck. It was described in the media as the end of steel and rise of aluminum, though in fact it is an aluminum box sitting in a high strength steel frame structure. The amount of the high end steels actually increases in the new F-150. Ford has now announced that the re-tooling costs for the Dearborn plant will be $350M to equip it to produce the new aluminum vehicle. These new innovations have required new capacities and skills for suppliers, for instance in prototyping, testing and in the manufacturing process itself. Among the new software tools are Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications. These skills shift are qualitative and based on new production paradigms. Classic industrial technologies like steel and plastics were monolithic i.e. the skill sets in the production process followed the stages of the materials processing. In steel manufacturing it was the stages and skills of the metallurgy overseen by metallurgical engineers. In plastics it was the industrial chemistry overseen by industrial chemists. The new production system requires multi-materials competencies like FEA and CFD because it is the microstructures of the materials that determine the attributes of the products. Vehicles in the future will all be multi-material. The recent announcement of GM that it intends to be a multi-material platform of steel, aluminum, carbon fibre and magnesium, heralds the coming shift in auto production systems.

Flexible production in the auto sector: Industrial reorganization at Ford-Mexico

World Development, 1995

Ford-Mexico is pursuing a single philosophy of flexible production in its Mexican plants, but with markedly different results. An analysis of three plants, one a new assembly plant in the North, another an established manufacturing plant in Cemral Mexico, and the third a labor-intensive maquiladora plant in the Northern border region shows how the factors of labor relations, local labor markets, complexity of production, and whether the plants are new or established affect the implantation of flexible production. The resulting systems implanted do not correspond to the ideal lean production model.

Incessant Conceptual/Industrial Transformation of Automobiles

Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity

In order to comprehend the prospect of a future automobile industry, the development path of the automobile industry is reviewed. It is found that the industry has experienced an incessant conceptual transformation, dominant design, emission control, fuel efficiency, product integrity, modularization, and hybridization. An industrial transformation is also identified, comprised of inter-firm competition, inter-industry competition, and inter-industry collaboration. It is concluded that in the coming age of self-driving, global partnering including IT companies will forge a new path for industrial development. Additionally, the pattern of innovation will involve business model creation rather than simple product/process innovations, such as the PC industry experienced after its stand-alone innovation had been accomplished.

The Growth of the Automobile Industry : Toyota’s Dominance in United States.

Abstract- During the last decade, the advancement in production and management systems has revolutionized the automobile industry. The industry has witnessed the opening up and growth of several emerging markets. The automotive industry is now facing new and pressing challenges. Globalization, digitalization and increasing competition in the market are changing the face of the industry. Size of the organization is no longer a guarantee of success. Only those companies that find new innovative techniques to create value can prosper in the future. The purpose of this paper is to present a short overview of the automotive industry today and highlight challenges that are faced the industry. We are also going to overview Toyota’s dominance in the US market, strategies used by them and how they were able to overcome the challenges and competition they faced in a foreign market, and how upcoming automobile companies can use Toyota’s strategies to grow in the current market. Keywords- Automobile Industry, Industry analysis,Toyota

A New Global Auto Industry?

China & World Economy, 2011

This paper brings together a number of robust trade models to shed some light on the likely evolution of the global automotive industry. Vertical product differentiation, intra-industry trade and fragmentation of production leading to international outsourcing are important features of the existing global automotive sector. The global automotive sector will most likely experience groundbreaking changes over the coming decades. The sector is confronted with a multidimensional technological revolution spurred by radical product innovation, shifts in customer demand and government incentives. A dominant driver will be growing public concern about climate change. China and India might well become leading players by 2050, if not earlier.