Henry Ford Research Paper

Henry Ford was the person who got automobiles out to the masses through his genius in establishing Mass Production in the industry. There was another individual who mastered the art of not only making automobiles available to the masses, but making sure there was a vehicle for every individual within the masses. That person was Alfred P. Sloan. Alfred P. Sloan was an intelligent man, who starting his career out as a draftsman in a machine shop, ended up as the President of General Motors (GM). He had a knack for management. As a draftsman for Hyatt Roller Bearing Company, he suggested that they start producing antifriction bearings for automobiles. This new bearing eventually became the standard for the industry and Sloan became the

While Ford was making Model T’s in one style and one color, Sloan was establishing the culture in GM to “target every purse and every purpose” (Stein, 2009). GM created different styles and brands of cars, such as the Buick, the Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, etc., and created them in a variety of different colors, shapes and sizes (Stein, 2009). This made GM very popular with the American people because it gave them a selection to choose from. They had a choice of a variety of cars to choose which was most practicable to each individual and

This system focuses on removing as much inefficiency and waste in their production processes as possible (The Economist, 2009). While in America, they were buying bigger and bigger machines that cranked out cars faster and faster, Toyota focused on things such as, “right-sizing machines for the actual volume needed, introducing self-monitoring machines to ensure quality, lining the machines up in process sequence, pioneering quick setups so each machine could make small volumes of many part numbers, and having each process step notify the previous step of its current needs for materials” (Lean Enterprise Institute, 2009). This Toyota Production System (TPS), is also knows as today as ‘Lean