Special Section: The Extraordinary Vision of Henry Ford
Many principles of lean manufacturing trace their roots to the man from Dearborn.
Once in a great while, an industry makes a giant leap. In the rearview mirror of history, such leaps seem a combination of both genius and common sense. At the moment, however, a leap into the unknown looks more like the act of a madman. Business history is filled with many examples of this dichotomy, ranging from James Watt and the steam engine to Ted Turner, CNN and cable TV.
Perhaps the single most dramatic industry-changing moment in modern times was Henry Ford's revolutionary Model T and the moving assembly line. In fact, Fortune magazine named Ford one of its four "businessmen of the century" for those innovations. According to the Nov. 22, 1999, article, "When he founded Ford Motor Co., cars were fussy, unreliable and costly novelties. Ford's genius was to make them simple, solid and inexpensive necessities."