Jennifer Nichols Popular Culture 4/21/2011 Henry Ford and the automobile I chose to review the chapter, "Henry Ford: Symbol of an age." During this review I will be summarizing the main ideas of the chapter, relating back to what we learned in class, and giving you my own opinion. One of the main ideas of the chapter is showing how big Ford really was in the 1920's. The chapter starts out saying that there were few names better known during that time. In fact, college students ranked Ford the third greatest figure of all time, behind Napolean and Jesus Christ.
Assignment 4.1 Model T Henry Ford has become an icon of American society. His dream was to build a car for the masses during a time when cars were a luxury only available for the wealthy. Ford created the Model T in 1908, igniting a revolution in America that changed manufacturing, transportation, and everyday life for the common man. When Ford first began producing the Model T, they were individually constructed by hand and took over twelve hours to complete. In order to make automobiles more accessible, Ford developed a way to automate the manufacturing process by using an assembly line to construct parts and assemble the chassis, thus lowering the price and highly increasing the efficiency.
Businessmen came to Detroit from all over the world to see the operation for themselves and to try and take Ford’s methods to use themselves. Currently the Ford Motor Company is considered the fourth largest automobile producer. with 108 plants world wide and 300,000 employees. Ford had a revenue of 146.3 billion in 2008 which was a decrease from 2007. The numbers keep continuing to plummet due to the recent economic deficit in America and earlier the gas purge in 2008.
Two years after that the all-new Chevy full-size pick-up truck since 1973 and it arrived with the newest thing an extended cab. Chevy launched a new ad based on the song “Like a Rock” by Bob Seger in 1991. Just one year later the millionth Corvette is completed. In 2009 Chevy had to declare bankruptcy because they failed to innovate and they weren’t selling enough cars. In 2009 Chevrolet came out with the 638-hp Corvette ZR1 which became the fastest and most powerful car in GM history.
Henry Ford, the leading businessman at the time, introduced the revolutionary moving assembly line in his factory called River Rouge located in Detroit, Michigan. When people think of the 1920’s, they think of Henry Ford and how the economy boomed because of his company and the jobs it provided. Henry Ford symbolized the new industrialized America. However, as time went on the country took a turn for the worse and eventually was in a permanent state of
In order to gain a larger market share, Ford designed, manufactured and the vehicle was shipped in order to be the road in a very short time frame. The first few years of sales were good, but in May 1972, Lily Gray was traveling with her thirteen year-old passenger, Richard Grimshaw when the car suddenly stalled and was rear-ended by another vehicle traveling approximately 32 miles per hour. The impact killed Lily Gray (after succumbing to congestive heart failure) and permanently disfigured thirteen year-old Richard Grimshaw with burns to his face and body (Leggett, 1999, para. 7). Grimshaw and Gray’s heirs sued Ford motor company based on theories of negligence and strict liability, alleging that the defendants knew from pre-manufacturing crash tests regarding the design flaws with the fuel system (Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company, 1981).
One can only speculate yes, if her last appearance with Barbra Walters could be considered to be a clue. When Sara Palin was asked by Barbra Walters whether she thought if she runs in 2012, would she be a winner over Obama, her answer was a yes without hesitation, “I think so” she said. With all this exposure that she has accumulated it would be a shame for it all to go to waste, would it not? With her new reality T.V. show “Sara Palin’s Alaska” she is bound to attract more followers, her opening night net 5 million plus viewers.
General Motors General Motors Corporation (GM) is an internationally recognized, global enterprise based in the United States. The company was founded in 1908, and has some of the most recognizable names in the world including; Chevrolet, Hummer, Buick, Cadillac, and Pontiac. Measured by global sales GM was the world’s largest automotive manufacturer for 77 years, until the 2009 financial collapse, and subsequent bankruptcy and government bailout caused major restructuring throughout the company. GM then lost the global sales title in 2010 to Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota, although both GM and Toyota are likely to be ousted this year by German manufacturer Volkswagen (Bloomberg, 2011). GM has had to reevaluate the company’s organizational structure for financial solvency, and to gain a foothold against strong competition expanding into the US and developing markets abroad.
CASE 2-3: FORD MOTOR COMPANY: SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY GROUP 5 Wiphu – Kirakit – Kittiphon Tacha – Pimonpich – Ariyawan 08/17/2010 OUTLINE A) General Issues B) Main Stakeholders C) Theory and Concepts D) Symptoms and Problems E) Alternatives & Evaluation Criteria F) Best Solution & Implementation Plan G) Evaluation and Review of the Project H) Current Status Update A) GENERAL ISSUES Facts: Founded by Henry Ford in 1903, with a head quarter in Detroit, Michigan The main business is design and manufacture of automobiles for sale on a global scales with 370,000 employees Ford is the second largest auto-maker in the United States In 1995, Ford implemented a corporate restructure plan called Ford2000 in order to reduce production cost by re-engineering and globalizing. Process such as OTD, order to delivery, and FPS, Ford production system were introduced. In mid-1995, Ford Motor Company launched a public Internet site to provide product information to potential customers surfing the internet world. Information technology became a tool for success in every single reengineering project of the company. Challenges: What is the best way to implement new IT technologies to provide information and share ideas with customers and suppliers at the highest level.
Henry Ford spent most of his life making headlines, good, bad, but never indifferent. Celebrated as both a technological genius and a folk hero, Ford was the creative force behind an industry of unprecedented size and wealth that in only a few decades permanently changed the economic and social character of the United States. When young Ford left his father's farm in 1879 for Detroit, only two out of eight Americans lived in cities; when he died at age 83, the proportion was five out of eight. Once Ford realized the tremendous part he and his Model T automobile had played in bringing about this change, he wanted nothing more than to reverse it, or at least to recapture the rural values of his boyhood. Henry Ford, then, is an apt symbol of the