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Today's Lean Manufacturing Goes Back To Henry Ford's 1926 Book

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Lean. It's the requisite buzzword in today's manufacturing world, and it's among the aspirations of those striving to become the best. It's cost efficient, it's smart – it's not new. It was Henry Ford's passion, and he wrote about it extensively in his 1926 book, Today and Tomorrow.

Just reprinted by Productivity Press to commemorate Ford Motor Company's Centennial, Today and Tomorrow continues to be a must-read for manufacturing practitioners and managers. It is the basis of the Ford Production System, the backbone of Toyota's production system and is emulated by automotive competitors and other manufacturers worldwide.

While the book illustrates manufacturing in 1920s terms and examples, the basic tenets of Henry Ford's philosophy shine through timelessly. He talks about eliminating waste – which is the basis for lean manufacturing – and cites things like minimizing, salvaging and recycling scrap materials, and reclaiming 'lost motion' in everything from shipping and distribution networks to various assembly processes.

"Picking up and reclaiming the scrap left over after production is a public service, but planning so that there will be no scrap is a higher public service," he writes. He also considers the value of time in the waste equation, noting that the "easiest of all wastes, and the hardest to correct is this waste of time…because it does not litter the floor like wasted material."

James Padilla, executive vice president and president for Ford North America, wrote the reprinted book's introduction. "To think that today's key manufacturing concepts of lean, just-in-time parts inventories and even workplace ergonomics were first discussed and published by Henry Ford more than 75 years ago, is truly phenomenal. It speaks volumes of the man and Ford Motor Company," he said. In Today and Tomorrow, Henry Ford also shares a broader workplace philosophy. He devotes a fair amount of discussion to defending big business, yet keenly asserts its need to be a conscientious corporate citizen and generous employer. He says, a business that increases prices while decreasing wages, "constantly narrows its markets and eventually strangles itself." He also writes, that a business run solely for profit, "and thinks not at all of the service to the community, (will) die, for it no longer has a reason for existence."

"Those tenets are as true today at Ford Motor Company as they were then," Padilla added.

The book explores various technical aspects of Ford manufacturing at the time, and it is consistently peppered with nuggets of wisdom. Mr. Ford's views on standardization, and "standardizing upward," link strongly to today's emphasis on quality, and he fosters the concept of continuous improvement. He touches on the debate between utility and design, and suggests, as modern consumers know, there should be a balance between the two, providing 'art' doesn't interfere with functionality.

Social scholars may see as most progressive Henry Ford's linkage between education and industry and his articulation of work/life balance. In Today and Tomorrow, he wrote that "part of our industrial duty (is) to help people help themselves." He started the Henry Ford Trade School in 1916, admitting orphans, widows' sons and others who lacked the resources to further their education, and provided scholarships as well as spending money and lunch to those enrolled. Upon graduation, he wrote, the student "is master of a highly paid trade (and) may continue his education" or "command a good job anywhere, though he is first offered a position with the Ford Motor Company."

With regard to work/life balance, Henry Ford wrote that the eight-hour day, five days a week "gives all the production that is necessary to ask for on the (per) man basis" and that leisure was among the benefits of modern industry. "Working all the while muddles the brain. Playing all the time muddles the brain. We have to find some kind of balance," he wrote. Furthermore, he described how one of his new Dearborn laboratories included a portioned off ballroom, big enough for 70 dancing couples. "One never gets too old to dance," he said.
 
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