Henry Ford and Mass Production Revisited

A mountain of material has been written on Henry Ford and mass production, but sometimes I wonder if we ignore points on Fordism that were made by Ford himself in the 1926 article that he wrote for Encylcopedia Britannica. See Volume 30, pp.821 ff.

The article begins:

"The term mass production is used to describe the modern method by which great quantities of a single standardized commodity are manufactured. As commonly employed it is made to refer to quantity produced, but its primary reference is to method. In several particulars the term is unsatisfactory. mass production is not merely quantity production, for this may be had with none of the requisites of mass production. Nor is it merely machine production, which also may exist without any resemblance to mass production. mass production is the focusing upon a manufacturing project of the principles of power, accuracy, economy, system, continuity, and speed. The interpretation of these principles, through studies of operation and machine development and their co-ordination, is the conspicuous task of management. And the normal result is a productive organization that delivers in quantities a useful commodity of standard material, workmanship and design, at a minimum cost. the necessary, precedent condition of mass production is a capacity, latent or developed, of mass consumption, the ability to absorb large production. The two go together, and in the latter may be traced the reasons for the former."

Ford goes on to explain some of the effects of mass production, and his points are worthy of explication. One point he makes is that mass production is above all quality production. He writes "The effect of mass production on the product has been to give it the highest stand of quality ever attained in output of great quantities. Conditions of mass production require material of the best quality to successfully pas through the operations. the utmost accuracy must control all these operations....If work goes through the tools, it must be right. It will thus be seen that the burden of creation is on management in designing and selecting the material which is to be produced by the multiple processes utilized in mass production."

Ford also takes on his critics related to de-skilling. He argues that "The need for skilled artisans and creative genius is greater under mass production than without it. in entering the shops of the Ford Motor Co., for example, one passes through great departments of skilled mechanics who are not engaged in production, but in the construction and maintenance of the machinery of production. Details of from 5,000 to 10,000 highly skilled artisans at strategic points throughout the shops were not commonly witnessed in the days preceding mass production.... The common work of the world has always been done by unskilled labor, but the common work of the world in modern times is not as common as it as formerly. In almost every field of labor more knowledge and responsibility are required than a generation or two ago."