UNIV 3539 Blog

On the Line

Henry Ford had to find a way to produce a car that the common people could afford and in the process change the way his workers worked. Ford was influenced by the Frederick Winslow Taylor methods theorized in his book, The Principals of Scientific Management. Taylor was brought into evaluate the process of making Ford?s car. ?Taylorism? brought in the assemble line and more efficient way to build cars. The process was broken down into many steps where each man did the same part each day but could still only put out 200 cars a day. Then the assembly line started where the men stayed in one spot and a conveyor belt moved the parts to the men and then the man would assemble the part onto the car. Many men quit after a few weeks, as the work was extremely hard. The turnover rate was over 400 percent. Ford had to find a way to keep his employees working so he decided to raise the pay to $5 a day, which was a lot of money for the times. High pay for hard work was what was expected. The $5 a day pay and the introduction of the moving assembly line was the solutions and the means to establishing a more affordable car and more cars produced.

The Ford Sociological Department was created to follow through with the plan that Ford had designed to find and keep the right employees. For employees to qualify for the $5 a day plan they had to be over 22, find himself sober, a saver, steady worker, family man, and live in a one family home.
The Ford Sociological Department was created to administer the plan by sending field agents into the community to visit workers at home to determine the quality of their home lives. It was believed that influencing the behavior of employees at home would turn them into better workers. All employees over 22 were eligible for the plan, which included a shortened workday from nine to eight hours in addition to the opportunity to earn five dollars per day. In order for a worker to be eligible to receive his share of the company's profits himself to be of the quality of worker designed. Ford stated that his money would not be wasted in ?riotous living?. Workers who did not comply risked being paid half as much for performing the same work as their co-workers, and could eventually lose their jobs.

Other practices that Ford indulged his company into were teaching English to the immigrant employees. 70 % of Fords? workers were immigrants. Ford also had a private security to get rid of anyone thought to be pro union. He established a payback plan for those employees who wanted to save to purchase a car. Ford set the a great standards in helping his employees that in turn, helped his company advance into a great car assembly company. Companies today could take a lesson in the Ford/Taylor theory of good business practices.