Books: My Life and Work
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Henry Ford >> My Life and Work
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It is your say, too, when it comes to speed. You can--if you
choose--loiter lingeringly through shady avenues or you can press down
on the foot-lever until all the scenery looks alike to you and you have
to keep your eyes skinned to count the milestones as they pass.
I am giving the gist of this advertisement to show that, from the
beginning, we were looking to providing service--we never bothered with
a "sporting car."
The business went along almost as by magic. The cars gained a reputation
for standing up. They were tough, they were simple, and they were well
made. I was working on my design for a universal single model but I had
not settled the designs nor had we the money to build and equip the
proper kind of plant for manufacturing. I had not the money to discover
the very best and lightest materials. We still had to accept the
materials that the market offered--we got the best to be had but we had
no facilities for the scientific investigation of materials or for
original research.
My associates were not convinced that it was possible to restrict our
cars to a single model. The automobile trade was following the old
bicycle trade, in which every manufacturer thought it necessary to bring
out a new model each year and to make it so unlike all previous models
that those who had bought the former models would want to get rid of the
old and buy the new. That was supposed to be good business. It is the
same idea that women submit to in their clothing and hats. That is not
service--it seeks only to provide something new, not something better.
It is extraordinary how firmly rooted is the notion that
business--continuous selling--depends not on satisfying the customer
once and for all, but on first getting his money for one article and
then persuading him he ought to buy a new and different one. The plan
which I then had in the back of my head but to which we were not then
sufficiently advanced to give expression, was that, when a model was
settled upon then every improvement on that model should be
interchangeable with the old model, so that a car should never get out
of date. It is my ambition to have every piece of machinery, or other
non-consumable product that I turn out, so strong and so well made that
no one ought ever to have to buy a second one. A good machine of any
kind ought to last as long as a good watch.
In the second year we scattered our energies among three models. We made
a four-cylinder touring car, "Model B," which sold for two thousand
dollars; "Model C," which was a slightly improved "Model A" and sold at
fifty dollars more than the former price; and "Model F," a touring car
which sold for a thousand dollars. That is, we scattered our energy and
increased prices--and therefore we sold fewer cars than in the first
year. The sales were 1,695 cars.
That "Model B"--the first four-cylinder car for general road use--had to
be advertised. Winning a race or making a record was then the best kind
of advertising. So I fixed up the "Arrow," the twin of the old "999"--in
fact practically remade it--and a week before the New York Automobile
show I drove it myself over a surveyed mile straightaway on the ice. I
shall never forget that race. The ice seemed smooth enough, so smooth
that if I had called off the trial we should have secured an immense
amount of the wrong kind of advertising, but instead of being smooth,
that ice was seamed with fissures which I knew were going to mean
trouble the moment I got up speed. But there was nothing to do but go
through with the trial, and I let the old "Arrow" out. At every fissure
the car leaped into the air. I never knew how it was coming down. When I
wasn't in the air, I was skidding, but somehow I stayed top side up and
on the course, making a record that went all over the world! That put
"Model B" on the map--but not enough on to overcome the price advances.
No stunt and no advertising will sell an article for any length of time.
Business is not a game. The moral is coming.
Our little wooden shop had, with the business we were doing, become
totally inadequate, and in 1906 we took out of our working capital
sufficient funds to build a three-story plant at the corner of Piquette
and Beaubien streets--which for the first time gave us real
manufacturing facilities. We began to make and to assemble quite a
number of the parts, although still we were principally an assembling
shop. In 1905-1906 we made only two models--one the four-cylinder car at
$2,000 and another touring car at $1,000, both being the models of the
previous year--and our sales dropped to 1,599 cars.
Some said it was because we had not brought out new models. I thought it
was because our cars were too expensive--they did not appeal to the 95
per cent. I changed the policy in the next year--having first acquired
stock control. For 1906-1907 we entirely left off making touring cars
and made three models of runabouts and roadsters, none of which differed
materially from the other in manufacturing process or in component
parts, but were somewhat different in appearance. The big thing was that
the cheapest car sold for $600 and the most expensive for only $750, and
right there came the complete demonstration of what price meant. We sold
8,423 cars--nearly five times as many as in our biggest previous year.
Our banner week was that of May 15, 1908, when we assembled 311 cars in
six working days. It almost swamped our facilities. The foreman had a
tallyboard on which he chalked up each car as it was finished and turned
over to the testers. The tallyboard was hardly equal to the task. On one
day in the following June we assembled an even one hundred cars.
In the next year we departed from the programme that had been so
successful and I designed a big car--fifty horsepower, six
cylinder--that would burn up the roads. We continued making our small
cars, but the 1907 panic and the diversion to the more expensive model
cut down the sales to 6,398 cars.
We had been through an experimenting period of five years. The cars were
beginning to be sold in Europe. The business, as an automobile business
then went, was considered extraordinarily prosperous. We had plenty of
money. Since the first year we have practically always had plenty of
money. We sold for cash, we did not borrow money, and we sold directly
to the purchaser. We had no bad debts and we kept within ourselves on
every move. I have always kept well within my resources. I have never
found it necessary to strain them, because, inevitably, if you give
attention to work and service, the resources will increase more rapidly
than you can devise ways and means of disposing of them.
We were careful in the selection of our salesmen. At first there was
great difficulty in getting good salesmen because the automobile trade
was not supposed to be stable. It was supposed to be dealing in a
luxury--in pleasure vehicles. We eventually appointed agents, selecting
the very best men we could find, and then paying to them a salary larger
than they could possibly earn in business for themselves. In the
beginning we had not paid much in the way of salaries. We were feeling
our way, but when we knew what our way was, we adopted the policy of
paying the very highest reward for service and then insisting upon
getting the highest service. Among the requirements for an agent we laid
down the following:
(1) A progressive, up-to-date man keenly alive to the possibilities of
business.
(2) A suitable place of business clean and dignified in appearance.
(3) A stock of parts sufficient to make prompt replacements and keep in
active service every Ford car in his territory.
(4) An adequately equipped repair shop which has in it the right
machinery for every necessary repair and adjustment.
(5) Mechanics who are thoroughly familiar with the construction and
operation of Ford cars.
(6) A comprehensive bookkeeping system and a follow-up sales system, so
that it may be instantly apparent what is the financial status of the
various departments of his business, the condition and size of his
stock, the present owners of cars, and the future prospects.
(7) Absolute cleanliness throughout every department. There must be no
unwashed windows, dusty furniture, dirty floors.
(8) A suitable display sign.
(9) The adoption of policies which will ensure absolutely square dealing
and the highest character of business ethics.
And this is the general instruction that was issued:
A dealer or a salesman ought to have the name of every possible
automobile buyer in his territory, including all those who have
never given the matter a thought. He should then personally solicit
by visitation if possible--by correspondence at the least--every man
on that list and then making necessary memoranda, know the
automobile situation as related to every resident so solicited. If
your territory is too large to permit this, you have too much
territory.
The way was not easy. We were harried by a big suit brought against the
company to try to force us into line with an association of automobile
manufacturers, who were operating under the false principle that there
was only a limited market for automobiles and that a monopoly of that
market was essential. This was the famous Selden Patent suit. At times
the support of our defense severely strained our resources. Mr. Selden,
who has but recently died, had little to do with the suit. It was the
association which sought a monopoly under the patent. The situation was
this:
George B. Selden, a patent attorney, filed an application as far back as
1879 for a patent the object of which was stated to be "The production
of a safe, simple, and cheap road locomotive, light in weight, easy to
control, possessed of sufficient power to overcome an ordinary
inclination." This application was kept alive in the Patent Office, by
methods which are perfectly legal, until 1895, when the patent was
granted. In 1879, when the application was filed, the automobile was
practically unknown to the general public, but by the time the patent
was issued everybody was familiar with self-propelled vehicles, and most
of the men, including myself, who had been for years working on motor
propulsion, were surprised to learn that what we had made practicable
was covered by an application of years before, although the applicant
had kept his idea merely as an idea. He had done nothing to put it into
practice.
The specific claims under the patent were divided into six groups and I
think that not a single one of them was a really new idea even in 1879
when the application was filed. The Patent Office allowed a combination
and issued a so-called "combination patent" deciding that the
combination (a) of a carriage with its body machinery and steering
wheel, with the (b) propelling mechanism clutch and gear, and finally
(c) the engine, made a valid patent.
With all of that we were not concerned. I believed that my engine had
nothing whatsoever in common with what Selden had in mind. The powerful
combination of manufacturers who called themselves the "licensed
manufacturers" because they operated under licenses from the patentee,
brought suit against us as soon as we began to be a factor in motor
production. The suit dragged on. It was intended to scare us out of
business. We took volumes of testimony, and the blow came on September
15, 1909, when Judge Hough rendered an opinion in the United States
District Court finding against us. Immediately that Licensed Association
began to advertise, warning prospective purchasers against our cars.
They had done the same thing in 1903 at the start of the suit, when it
was thought that we could be put out of business. I had implicit
confidence that eventually we should win our suit. I simply knew that we
were right, but it was a considerable blow to get the first decision
against us, for we believed that many buyers--even though no injunction
was issued against us--would be frightened away from buying because of
the threats of court action against individual owners. The idea was
spread that if the suit finally went against me, every man who owned a
Ford car would be prosecuted. Some of my more enthusiastic opponents, I
understand, gave it out privately that there would be criminal as well
as civil suits and that a man buying a Ford car might as well be buying
a ticket to jail. We answered with an advertisement for which we took
four pages in the principal newspapers all over the country. We set out
our case--we set out our confidence in victory--and in conclusion said:
In conclusion we beg to state if there are any prospective automobile
buyers who are at all intimidated by the claims made by our adversaries
that we will give them, in addition to the protection of the Ford Motor
Company with its some $6,000,000.00 of assets, an individual bond backed
by a Company of more than $6,000,000.00 more of assets, so that each and
every individual owner of a Ford car will be protected until at least
$12,000,000.00 of assets have been wiped out by those who desire to
control and monopolize this wonderful industry.
The bond is yours for the asking, so do not allow yourself to be sold
inferior cars at extravagant prices because of any statement made by
this "Divine" body.
N. B.--This fight is not being waged by the Ford Motor Company without
the advice and counsel of the ablest patent attorneys of the East and
West.
We thought that the bond would give assurance to the buyers--that they
needed confidence. They did not. We sold more than eighteen thousand
cars--nearly double the output of the previous year--and I think about
fifty buyers asked for bonds--perhaps it was less than that.
As a matter of fact, probably nothing so well advertised the Ford car
and the Ford Motor Company as did this suit. It appeared that we were
the under dog and we had the public's sympathy. The association had
seventy million dollars--we at the beginning had not half that number of
thousands. I never had a doubt as to the outcome, but nevertheless it
was a sword hanging over our heads that we could as well do without.
Prosecuting that suit was probably one of the most shortsighted acts
that any group of American business men has ever combined to commit.
Taken in all its sidelights, it forms the best possible example of
joining unwittingly to kill a trade. I regard it as most fortunate for
the automobile makers of the country that we eventually won, and the
association ceased to be a serious factor in the business. By 1908,
however, in spite of this suit, we had come to a point where it was
possible to announce and put into fabrication the kind of car that I
wanted to build.
CHAPTER IV
THE SECRET OF MANUFACTURING AND SERVING
Now I am not outlining the career of the Ford Motor Company for any
personal reason. I am not saying: "Go thou and do likewise." What I am
trying to emphasize is that the ordinary way of doing business is not
the best way. I am coming to the point of my entire departure from the
ordinary methods. From this point dates the extraordinary success of the
company.
We had been fairly following the custom of the trade. Our automobile was
less complex than any other. We had no outside money in the concern. But
aside from these two points we did not differ materially from the other
automobile companies, excepting that we had been somewhat more
successful and had rigidly pursued the policy of taking all cash
discounts, putting our profits back into the business, and maintaining a
large cash balance. We entered cars in all of the races. We advertised
and we pushed our sales. Outside of the simplicity of the construction
of the car, our main difference in design was that we made no provision
for the purely "pleasure car." We were just as much a pleasure car as
any other car on the market, but we gave no attention to purely luxury
features. We would do special work for a buyer, and I suppose that we
would have made a special car at a price. We were a prosperous company.
We might easily have sat down and said: "Now we have arrived. Let us
hold what we have got."
Indeed, there was some disposition to take this stand. Some of the
stockholders were seriously alarmed when our production reached one
hundred cars a day. They wanted to do something to stop me from ruining
the company, and when I replied to the effect that one hundred cars a
day was only a trifle and that I hoped before long to make a thousand a
day, they were inexpressibly shocked and I understand seriously
contemplated court action. If I had followed the general opinion of my
associates I should have kept the business about as it was, put our
funds into a fine administration building, tried to make bargains with
such competitors as seemed too active, made new designs from time to
time to catch the fancy of the public, and generally have passed on into
the position of a quiet, respectable citizen with a quiet, respectable
business.
The temptation to stop and hang on to what one has is quite natural. I
can entirely sympathize with the desire to quit a life of activity and
retire to a life of ease. I have never felt the urge myself but I can
comprehend what it is--although I think that a man who retires ought
entirely to get out of a business. There is a disposition to retire and
retain control. It was, however, no part of my plan to do anything of
that sort. I regarded our progress merely as an invitation to do
more--as an indication that we had reached a place where we might begin
to perform a real service. I had been planning every day through these
years toward a universal car. The public had given its reactions to the
various models. The cars in service, the racing, and the road tests gave
excellent guides as to the changes that ought to be made, and even by
1905 I had fairly in mind the specifications of the kind of car I wanted
to build. But I lacked the material to give strength without weight. I
came across that material almost by accident.
In 1905 I was at a motor race at Palm Beach. There was a big smash-up
and a French car was wrecked. We had entered our "Model K"--the
high-powered six. I thought the foreign cars had smaller and better
parts than we knew anything about. After the wreck I picked up a little
valve strip stem. It was very light and very strong. I asked what it was
made of. Nobody knew. I gave the stem to my assistant.
"Find out all about this," I told him. "That is the kind of material we
ought to have in our cars."
He found eventually that it was a French steel and that there was
vanadium in it. We tried every steel maker in America--not one could
make vanadium steel. I sent to England for a man who understood how to
make the steel commercially. The next thing was to get a plant to turn
it out. That was another problem. Vanadium requires 3,000 degrees
Fahrenheit. The ordinary furnace could not go beyond 2,700 degrees. I
found a small steel company in Canton, Ohio. I offered to guarantee them
against loss if they would run a heat for us. They agreed. The first
heat was a failure. Very little vanadium remained in the steel. I had
them try again, and the second time the steel came through. Until then
we had been forced to be satisfied with steel running between 60,000 and
70,000 pounds tensile strength. With vanadium, the strength went up to
170,000 pounds.
Having vanadium in hand I pulled apart our models and tested in detail
to determine what kind of steel was best for every part--whether we
wanted a hard steel, a tough steel, or an elastic steel. We, for the
first time I think, in the history of any large construction, determined
scientifically the exact quality of the steel. As a result we then
selected twenty different types of steel for the various steel parts.
About ten of these were vanadium. Vanadium was used wherever strength
and lightness were required. Of course they are not all the same kind of
vanadium steel. The other elements vary according to whether the part is
to stand hard wear or whether it needs spring--in short, according to
what it needs. Before these experiments I believe that not more than
four different grades of steel had ever been used in automobile
construction. By further experimenting, especially in the direction of
heat treating, we have been able still further to increase the strength
of the steel and therefore to reduce the weight of the car. In 1910 the
French Department of Commerce and Industry took one of our steering
spindle connecting rod yokes--selecting it as a vital unit--and tried it
against a similar part from what they considered the best French car,
and in every test our steel proved the stronger.
The vanadium steel disposed of much of the weight. The other requisites
of a universal car I had already worked out and many of them were in
practice. The design had to balance. Men die because a part gives out.
Machines wreck themselves because some parts are weaker than others.
Therefore, a part of the problem in designing a universal car was to
have as nearly as possible all parts of equal strength considering their
purpose--to put a motor in a one-horse shay. Also it had to be fool
proof. This was difficult because a gasoline motor is essentially a
delicate instrument and there is a wonderful opportunity for any one who
has a mind that way to mess it up. I adopted this slogan:
"When one of my cars breaks down I know I am to blame."
From the day the first motor car appeared on the streets it had to me
appeared to be a necessity. It was this knowledge and assurance that led
me to build to the one end--a car that would meet the wants of the
multitudes. All my efforts were then and still are turned to the
production of one car--one model. And, year following year, the pressure
was, and still is, to improve and refine and make better, with an
increasing reduction in price. The universal car had to have these
attributes:
(1) Quality in material to give service in use. Vanadium steel is the
strongest, toughest, and most lasting of steels. It forms the foundation
and super-structure of the cars. It is the highest quality steel in this
respect in the world, regardless of price.
(2) Simplicity in operation--because the masses are not mechanics.
(3) Power in sufficient quantity.
(4) Absolute reliability--because of the varied uses to which the cars
would be put and the variety of roads over which they would travel.
(5) Lightness. With the Ford there are only 7.95 pounds to be carried by
each cubic inch of piston displacement. This is one of the reasons why
Ford cars are "always going," wherever and whenever you see
them--through sand and mud, through slush, snow, and water, up hills,
across fields and roadless plains.
(6) Control--to hold its speed always in hand, calmly and safely meeting
every emergency and contingency either in the crowded streets of the
city or on dangerous roads. The planetary transmission of the Ford gave
this control and anybody could work it. That is the "why" of the saying:
"Anybody can drive a Ford." It can turn around almost anywhere.
(7) The more a motor car weighs, naturally the more fuel and lubricants
are used in the driving; the lighter the weight, the lighter the expense
of operation. The light weight of the Ford car in its early years was
used as an argument against it. Now that is all changed.
The design which I settled upon was called "Model T." The important
feature of the new model--which, if it were accepted, as I thought it
would be, I intended to make the only model and then start into real
production--was its simplicity. There were but four constructional units
in the car--the power plant, the frame, the front axle, and the rear
axle. All of these were easily accessible and they were designed so that
no special skill would be required for their repair or replacement. I
believed then, although I said very little about it because of the
novelty of the idea, that it ought to be possible to have parts so
simple and so inexpensive that the menace of expensive hand repair work
would be entirely eliminated. The parts could be made so cheaply that it
would be less expensive to buy new ones than to have old ones repaired.
They could be carried in hardware shops just as nails or bolts are
carried. I thought that it was up to me as the designer to make the car
so completely simple that no one could fail to understand it.
That works both ways and applies to everything. The less complex an
article, the easier it is to make, the cheaper it may be sold, and
therefore the greater number may be sold.
It is not necessary to go into the technical details of the construction
but perhaps this is as good a place as any to review the various models,
because "Model T" was the last of the models and the policy which it
brought about took this business out of the ordinary line of business.
Application of the same idea would take any business out of the ordinary
run.
I designed eight models in all before "Model T." They were: "Model A,"
"Model B," "Model C," "Model F," "Model N," "Model R," "Model S," and
"Model K." Of these, Models "A," "C," and "F" had two-cylinder opposed
horizontal motors. In "Model A" the motor was at the rear of the
driver's seat. In all of the other models it was in a hood in front.
Models "B," "N," "R," and "S" had motors of the four-cylinder vertical
type. "Model K" had six cylinders. "Model A" developed eight horsepower.
"Model B" developed twenty-four horsepower with a 4-1/2-inch cylinder
and a 5-inch stroke. The highest horsepower was in "Model K," the
six-cylinder car, which developed forty horsepower. The largest
cylinders were those of "Model B." The smallest were in Models "N," "R,"
and "S" which were 3-3/4 inches in diameter with a 3-3/8-inch stroke.
"Model T" has a 3-3/4-inch cylinder with a 4-inch stroke. The ignition
was by dry batteries in all excepting "Model B," which had storage
batteries, and in "Model K" which had both battery and magneto. In the
present model, the magneto is a part of the power plant and is built in.
The clutch in the first four models was of the cone type; in the last
four and in the present model, of the multiple disc type. The
transmission in all of the cars has been planetary. "Model A" had a
chain drive. "Model B" had a shaft drive. The next two models had chain
drives. Since then all of the cars have had shaft drives. "Model A" had
a 72-inch wheel base. Model "B," which was an extremely good car, had 92
inches. "Model K" had 120 inches. "Model C" had 78 inches. The others
had 84 inches, and the present car has 100 inches. In the first five
models all of the equipment was extra. The next three were sold with a
partial equipment. The present car is sold with full equipment. Model
"A" weighed 1,250 pounds. The lightest cars were Models "N" and "R."
They weighed 1,050 pounds, but they were both runabouts. The heaviest
car was the six-cylinder, which weighed 2,000 pounds. The present car
weighs 1,200 lbs.
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