Ford Global
Ford Motor Company
More than one hundred years ago, on June 16, 1903, the Ford Motor Company was launched into the world. With only 28,000 in cash, Henry Ford together with eleven business associates signed the articles of incorporation of the new company with great hopes for the future.
Optimistic as these entrepreneurs were, they little dreamed that their company would, one day, become one of the largest and most innovative corporations in the world with vast manufacturing plants in many different countries in addition to its original US operation.
The Ford Motor Company, over the years, has been closely identified with history-making events and the development of industry and society throughout the 20th Century. Yet even today there is a Ford family member at the helm, which makes Ford so much more than a huge faceless conglomerate.
From its earliest days, the company had to overcome some anxious moments. However it was with great pride that in July 1903, exactly one month after incorporation, the first Ford vehicle was delivered to the very first owner, a Detroit physician.
Henry Ford had the intuitive genius not only to produce a practical motor vehicle, he had the foresight to produce a car that people could afford. He established an entirely new production system that revolutionized all manufacturing, changing the industrialized world forever. He created the assembly line. First implemented at the Highland Park plant in Michigan, the United States, in 1913, this new technique involved individual workers remaining stationary at their production post while performing the same task repeatedly on a stream of vehicles that moved on a conveyor line in front of them. The assembly line system enabled the company to achieve an unprecedented level of production efficiency and quality at a speed that was an economic miracle
Everybody could afford a Ford.
Henry Ford had brought to the world a system that still remains today.
Another innovation, although a minor one, was that the company began using the first 19 letters of the alphabet to name new cars. In 1903, the model T was launched. Nineteen years and fifteen million Model T's later, the Ford Motor Company had grown to a giant industrial complex that spanned the globe.
Ford progress was unstoppable, in 1925 the company branched out into the luxury car market with the purchase of the Lincoln Motor Company and in 1930 another division was created to produce mid-priced cars. Astute management and positive thinking by top management enabled the company to survive the 1929 stock market crash and the devastation of the Great Depression.
During the second World War, the company made substantial and vital contribution to the war effort and with the Baby Boom after the war, Ford also continued its own boom and 1950 saw the development of the exciting Thunderbird which captured the hearts of the new generation.
To meet the demands of ever-increasing growth, the company gave everyone a chance to share the future. The Ford Motor company went public in February 1956.
Henry Ford II added to the momentum of growth with his keen perception of political and economic trends in the 50's. This led to further expansion in the 60's and then heavy investment into the establishment of Ford of Europe in 1967, twenty years before the arrival of the European Economic Community. Anticipating North American development, Ford consolidated the U.S., Canadian and Mexican operation two decades ahead of the North American Free Trade Agreement, continuing the Ford history of foresighted development.
Now at the beginning of the 21st Century, the Ford Motor Company has a family of leading automotive brands; Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and, until its sale, Volvo
The company retains and is expanding Henry Ford's vision by developing products that continue to anticipate the ever-changing needs of car owners in the global community. Ford is now at the forefront in creating the new generation of Hybrid automobiles that meet the challenge of dwindling oil supplies. Ford continues to meet the challenge of the future.
