Henry Ford’s Management Revolution
March 23rd 2007 08:55
I found out from reading Henry Ford’s “Today and Tomorrow”, written in 1926, that he had the most revolutionary ideas about the management of his employees. Going directly to page 182, he establishes his three “Ford principles of management:”
1. Do the job the most direct fashion without bothering with red tape or any of the ordinary divisions of authority.
2. Pay every man well – not less than six dollars a day – and see that he is employed all the time through forty-eight hours a week and no longer.
3. Put all machinery in the best possible condition, keep it that way, and insist upon absolute cleanliness everywhere in order that a man may learn to respect his tools, his surroundings, and himself.
The first principle is the one that most strikes me because it implies a self-organising system of work. Ford puts it this way (page 183): “The division of work among the men were abolished; an engineer may now be found cleaning an engine or a car or even working in the repair shop.”
He then reinforces the principle: “The idea is that a group of men have been assigned to run a railroad, and among them they can, if they are willing, do all the work. If a specialist has some of his special work on hand he does it; if he has no such work he does labourer’s work or whatever there may be to do.”
With regards to principle number two, Ford notes that he pays all his workers the sum of six dollars a day, which then was about double the regular wage. He then acknowledges that he never had any trouble with workers’ unions – he was paying his workers a lot more than unions demanded. On the other hand, this wages allowed him to demand work for pay and, obviously, being approached by and retaining the best workers.
On the third principle, Ford sums it up this way (page 184): “Give a man a good tool – a fancy polished tool – and he will learn to take care of it. Good work is difficult excepting with good tools used in clean surroundings.”
Ford emphasises his three management principles this way: “These are not unimportant points: they are fundamental. They make for the working spirit. They are as important as the wages. The work would not be returned for the wages were not the conditions so arranged that the work is possible.”
Thaiichi Ohno, creator of Toyota’s Just-In-Time production system, confesses he found his ideas in Henry Ford’s “Today and Tomorrow”.
I wonder whether Ford Motor Co. still uses these three principles of management so cherished by its founder.
1. Do the job the most direct fashion without bothering with red tape or any of the ordinary divisions of authority.
2. Pay every man well – not less than six dollars a day – and see that he is employed all the time through forty-eight hours a week and no longer.
3. Put all machinery in the best possible condition, keep it that way, and insist upon absolute cleanliness everywhere in order that a man may learn to respect his tools, his surroundings, and himself.
The first principle is the one that most strikes me because it implies a self-organising system of work. Ford puts it this way (page 183): “The division of work among the men were abolished; an engineer may now be found cleaning an engine or a car or even working in the repair shop.”
He then reinforces the principle: “The idea is that a group of men have been assigned to run a railroad, and among them they can, if they are willing, do all the work. If a specialist has some of his special work on hand he does it; if he has no such work he does labourer’s work or whatever there may be to do.”
With regards to principle number two, Ford notes that he pays all his workers the sum of six dollars a day, which then was about double the regular wage. He then acknowledges that he never had any trouble with workers’ unions – he was paying his workers a lot more than unions demanded. On the other hand, this wages allowed him to demand work for pay and, obviously, being approached by and retaining the best workers.
On the third principle, Ford sums it up this way (page 184): “Give a man a good tool – a fancy polished tool – and he will learn to take care of it. Good work is difficult excepting with good tools used in clean surroundings.”
Ford emphasises his three management principles this way: “These are not unimportant points: they are fundamental. They make for the working spirit. They are as important as the wages. The work would not be returned for the wages were not the conditions so arranged that the work is possible.”
Thaiichi Ohno, creator of Toyota’s Just-In-Time production system, confesses he found his ideas in Henry Ford’s “Today and Tomorrow”.
I wonder whether Ford Motor Co. still uses these three principles of management so cherished by its founder.
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