Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker that has its main headquarters

in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June
16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most
luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford also owns
Brazilian SUV manufacturer Troller, an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom and a 32%
stake in Jiangling Motors It also has joint-ventures in China (Changan Ford), Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho),
Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), Turkey (Ford Otosan), and Russia (Ford Sollers). The company is
listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family; they have minority
ownership but the majority of the voting power.

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale

management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences
typified by moving assembly lines; by 1914, these methods were known around the world
as Fordism. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000
respectively, were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish
automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010.[7] In 2011, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it
had marketed entry-level luxury cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East
since 1938
 Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker (behind General Motors) and the fifth-largest in
the world (behind Toyota, VW, Hyundai-Kia and General Motors) based on 2015 vehicle production.
At the end of 2010, Ford was the fifth largest automaker in Europe.[8] The company went public in
1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares, still retain 40 percent voting
rights.[9][4] During the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century, it was close to bankruptcy,
but it has since returned to profitability.[10] Ford was the eleventh-ranked overall American-based
company in the 2018 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2017 of $156.7 billion.[11] In 2008,
Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles[12] and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90
plants and facilities worldwide.
 FOUNDATION

Henry Ford built his first automobile, which he called a quadricycle, at his home in Detroit in 1896.
The location has been redeveloped, where the Michigan Building now stands, and the tracks for
the Detroit People Mover and the Times Square People Mover station are nearby. At the entrance to
the Michigan Building, there is a commemorative plaque identifying the original location of the Ford
home. The coal shed has been recreated using the original bricks at Greenfield Village in
nearby Dearborn.[1] His initial foray into automobile manufacturing was the Detroit Automobile
Company, founded in 1899. The company foundered, and in 1901 was reorganized as the Henry
Ford Company. In March 1902, after falling out with his financial backers, Ford left the company with
the rights to his name and 900 dollars.

Henry Ford turned to an acquaintance, coal dealer Alexander Y. Malcomson, to help finance another
automobile company. Malcomson put up the money to start the partnership "Ford and Malcomson"
and the pair designed a car and began ordering parts. However, by February 1903, Ford and
Malcomson had gone through more money than expected, and the manufacturing firm
of John and Horace Dodge, who had made parts for Ford and Malcomson, was demanding
payment.[2] Malcomson, constrained by his coal business demands, turned to his uncle John S. Gray,
the president of the German-American Savings Bank and a good friend. Malcomson proposed
incorporating Ford and Malcomson to bring in new investors, and wanted Gray to join the company,
thinking that Gray's name would attract other investors. Gray was not interested at first, but
Malcomson promised he could withdraw his share at any time, so Gray reluctantly agreed. On the
strength of Gray's name, Malcomson recruited other business acquaintances to invest, including
local merchants Albert Strelow and Vernon Fry, lawyers John Anderson and Horace Rackham,
Charles T. Bennett of the Daisy Air Rifle Company, and his own clerk James Couzens. Malcomson
also convinced the Dodges to accept stock in lieu of payment.
On June 16, 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated, with 12 investors owning a total of
1000 shares. Ford and Malcomson together retained 51% of the new company in exchange for their
earlier investments. When the total stock ownership was tabulated, shares in the company
were: Henry Ford (255 shares), Alexander Y. Malcomson (255 shares), John S. Gray (105 shares),
John W. Anderson (50 shares), Horace Rackham (50 shares), Horace E. Dodge (50 shares), John
F. Dodge (50 shares), Charles T. Bennett (50 shares), Vernon C. Fry (50 shares), Albert Strelow (50
shares), James Couzens (25 shares), and Charles J. Woodall (10 shares).

At the first stockholder meeting on June 18, Gray was elected president, Ford vice-president, and
James Couzens secretary. Despite Gray's misgivings, the Ford Motor Company was immediately
profitable, with profits by October 1, 1903 of almost $37,000. A dividend of 10% was paid that
October, an additional dividend of 20% at the beginning of 1904, and another 68% in June 1904.
Two dividends of 100% each in June and July 1905 brought the total investor profits to nearly 300%
in just over 2 years; 1905 total profits were almost $300,000

However, there were internal frictions in the company that Gray was nominally in charge of. Most of
the investors, both Malcomson and Gray included, had their own businesses to attend to; only Ford
and Couzens worked full-time at the company. The issue came to a head when the principal
stockholders, Ford and Malcomson, quarreled over the future direction of the company. Gray sided
with Ford. By early 1906 Malcomson was effectively frozen out of the Ford Motor Company, and in
May sold his shares to Henry Ford.[2] John S. Gray died unexpectedly in 1906, and his position as
Ford's president was taken over by Ford himself soon afterward

Ford was subject to lawsuits or threats from the Association of Licensed Automobile
Manufacturers early in its history. The Association claimed patent rights to most gasoline-powered
automobiles. After several years of legal wrangling, the Association eventually dropped its case
against Ford in 1911
Early d Early developments and assembly line

The coal shed on Bagley Street, Detroit where Henry Ford built his first car in 1896.

During its early years, the company produced a range of vehicles designated, chronologically, from
the Ford Model A (1903) to the Model K and Model S (Ford's last right-hand steering model)[4] of
1907.[5] The K, Ford's first six-cylinder model, was known as "the gentleman's roadster" and "the
silent cyclone", and sold for US$2800;[5] by contrast, around that time, the Enger 40 was priced at
US$2000,[6] the Colt Runabout US$1500,[7] the high-
volume Oldsmobile Runabout[8] US$650, Western's Gale Model A US$500,[9] and the Success hit the
amazingly low US$250.[8]

The first Ford assembly plant in La Boca, Buenos Aires, c. 1921.

In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Earlier models were produced at a rate of only a few a
day at a rented factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan and later at the Piquette Avenue
Plant (the first company-owned factory), with groups of two or three men working on each car from
components made to order by other companies (what would come to be called an "assembled car").
The first Model Ts were built at the Piquette Avenue Plant and in the car's first full year of production,
1909, just over 10,000 Model Ts were built. As demand for the car grew, the company moved
production to the much larger Highland Park Plant in 1910. In 1911, 69,762[10] Model Ts were
produced, with 170,211 in 1912.[11] By 1913, the company had developed all of the basic techniques
of the assembly line and mass production. Ford introduced the world's first moving assembly line
that year, which reduced chassis assembly time from 12 1⁄2 hours in October to 2 hours 40 minutes
(and ultimately 1 hour 33 minutes), and boosted annual output to 202,667 units that year After a
Ford ad promised profit-sharing if sales hit 300,000 between August 1914 and August 1915, sales in
1914 reached 308,162, and 501,462 in 1915; by 1920, production would exceed one million a year.
These innovations were hard on employees, and turnover of workers was very high, while increased
productivity reduced labor demand. Turnover meant delays and extra costs of training, and use of
slow workers. In January 1914, Ford solved the employee turnover problem by doubling pay to $5 a
day cutting shifts from nine hours to an eight-hour day for a 5-day work week (which also increased
sales; a line worker could buy a T with less than four months' pay), nd instituting hiring practices that
identified the best workers, including disabled people considered unemployable by other
firms.[11] Employee turnover plunged, productivity soared, and with it, the cost per vehicle plummeted.
Ford cut prices again and again and invented the system of franchised dealers who were loyal to his
brand name. Wall Street had criticized Ford's generous labor practices when he began paying
workers enough to buy the products they made.[14]

Ford assembly line (1913).

While Ford attained international status in 1904 with the founding of Ford of Canada, it was in 1911
the company began to rapidly expand overseas, with the opening of assembly plants in Ireland
(1917), England and France, followed by Denmark (1923), Germany (1925), Austria (1925) and
Argentina (1925).[15] A factory was opened in Japan (1925) at Yokohama, and also in South Africa
(1924)[16] and Australia (1925) as subsidiaries of Ford of Canada due to preferential tariff rules
for Commonwealth countries. By the end of 1919, Ford was producing 50 percent of all cars in
the United States, and 40% of all British ones. by 1920, half of all cars in the U.S. were Model Ts.
(The low price also killed the cyclecar in the U.S.) The assembly line transformed the industry; soon,
companies without it risked bankruptcy. Of 200 U.S. car makers in 1920, only 17 were left in 1940.

Ford 1916 Model T Field Ambulance. This canvas on wood frame model was used extensively by the British &
French as well as the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Its top speed was 45 mph (72 km/h),
produced by a 4-cylinder water-cooled engine

It also transformed technology. Henry Ford is reported to have said, "Any customer can have a car
painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." Before the assembly line, Ts had been
available in a variety of colors, including red, blue, and green, but not black. Now, paint had become
a production bottleneck; only Japan Black dried quickly enough, and not
until Duco lacquer appeared in 1926 would other colors reappear on the T.
Reorganization And Expansion
As early as 1906 Henry Ford had acquired 58.5 percent of the company’s stock; and,
when the other stockholders balked at the idea of building the giant (and expensive)
River Rouge plant in Dearborn, he bought them out; Edsel Ford (1893–1943)
became president (1919). On Edsel’s death in 1943, Henry Ford returned to the
presidency, but in 1945 he turned it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, who
reorganized the company’s tangled system of financial management and reinvigorated
its corporate culture by hiring talented younger managers. The failed introduction of
the Edsel (model years 1958–60) occurred amid these successes. Henry Ford II
continued to guide the company as chief executive officer (1945–70) and chairman of
the board (1960–80).

Brown, Roy: EdselRoy Brown, Jr., standing in front of the Edsel, a car model he designed for Ford.Ralph Fountain—Las
Vegas Review Journal/AP Images

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In the 1950s and ’60s the Ford Motor Company began limited diversification, but by
the 1990s it had refocused attention on its automotive concerns and financial services.
In 1989–90 Ford acquired Jaguar, a British manufacturer of luxury cars. Aston Martin
became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1993. Later acquisitions included the rental car
company Hertz Corporation in 1994, the automobile division of Volvo in 1999, and
the Land Rover brand of sport utility vehicles in 2000. Ford also purchased a
significant share of the Mazda Motor Corporation. However, as Ford struggled in the
early 21st century, it began selling a number of its brands. In 2007 the company sold
Aston Martin, and the following year it sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors
Ltd. of India.
Ford In The 21st Century
In December 2008 Pres. George W. Bush announced an emergency financial
rescue plan to aid the “Big Three” automakers—Chrysler LLC, General Motors
Corporation, and Ford—to prevent the collapse of the country’s struggling auto
industry. The plan made immediately available $13.4 billion in government loans
from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), a $700 billion fund approved
by Congress to aid the financial industry following the subprime mortgage crisis.
The loans would allow the auto companies to continue operating through March
2009, when they were required to demonstrate “financial viability” or return the
money. An additional stipulation required the companies to undergo
restructuring. The money was initially made available to General Motors and
Chrysler; Ford purportedly possessed adequate funds to continue operations
and, thus, did not immediately require government relief.Able to avoid
bankruptcy—for which both General Motors and Chrysler filed—Ford
experienced increased sales and market share in 2009. The growth was partially
due to the federal government’s “cash-for-clunkers” plan, which gave consumers
up to $4,500 toward trade-ins of older cars for new fuel-efficient models. In
addition, Ford adopted various cost-cutting measures and focused on stronger
brands. In 2010 the automaker sold Volvo to the Chinese company Zhejiang
Geely Holding. Several months later Ford announced that it would discontinue
its Mercury line. However, as sales became sluggish, the automaker looked to
expand its products. In 2016 Ford Smart Mobility was created to develop car-
sharing ventures and self-driving vehicles, among other initiatives. The following
year the automaker announced that it was increasing its line of electric cars.
However, in 2018 Ford announced that it was phasing out all of its passenger
cars, except the Mustang and Ford Focus Active. Instead, the company was going
to focus on pickups, SUVs, and crossover vehicles.
mass production: assembly lineAn assembly line at a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, 2011.© Bill Pugliano—Getty
Images News/Thinkstock

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated
by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.
Avail Ford Car services to have a good servicing experience
May 28, 2019 Harpreet Ford 0 Comments Ford Car Repair Shop, Ford Car Service Center, Ford Car Service
Center Near Me, Ford Car Service in Delhi, Ford Car Service in Gurgaon, Ford Car Service in Noida, Ford Car
Workshop, Ford service

Post Views: 217

Ford services are reaching to the potential customers through 440 service
center points hence you can trust the brand for reliable services. It also
provides your prompt response towards the services with active engagements.
You get rid of a number of issues and save a lot of time through the valuable
services of Ford.

There are a number of factors like structural differences in designing or little

alterations, which becomes a major issue for the customers to get the servicing
benefits for their cars. The major ones include –
 Cost Efficiency
In the present day, everyone needs an affordable yet reliable service for their
cars. Through the services of Ford, every single coin paid by you is worth.

Additional Parts Supports

The servicing plans also include the missing of any part in the car and if found
any, then it gets fixed soon. So it is a deal of advantage that along with the
servicing you get an additional replacement or new body parts for your car.

Responsible services
One thing that has been observed in most of the servicing is that it is initially
done to get rid of the problem before it even occurs. Ford car service ease your
inconvenience of the repeated servicing and get the job done in a single ‘Go’.
They are liable for their services.
The prompt response towards customer’s queries
If you have experience with this segment then you will understand that if asked
for car servicing you will only get basic car servicing with no additional services
custom made for your car. Whereas, the servicing plan of Ford also includes
proper guidance and assistance, along with servicing and making sure you get
exact solutions from Ford service center.
Follow up through Ford’s service Plans
There is numerous service plans hosted by Ford for the customers so that they
don’t face any problem when they bring their car for servicing. It allows you to
get the best executions and most of the cars are eligible for this service plan.
You can enjoy the longer rides with this plan with absolute comfort and
affordable maintenance. The advantages of these plans are –

 It saves the labor charges

 Roadside assistance for 1-year periodically
 Inflation covering
 Discount over the value-added amenities
 Calculated discount over the wheel alignment as well
Ford cars also provide satisfactory resale value so if you don’t have long-term
plans for the car then you need not worry. With the optimal price rate, you can
either replace your car with a new one or get the cash.