About Ford
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's third largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales.
In 2006, Ford was the second-ranked automaker in the US with a 17.5% market share, behind General Motors (24.6%) but ahead of Toyota (15.4%) and Daimler AG (14.4%). Ford was also the seventh-ranked American-based company in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues of $160.1 billion . In 2006, Ford produced about 6.6 million automobiles, and employed about 283,000 employees at about 100 plants and facilities worldwide. In 2007, Ford had more quality awards from J.D Power than any other automaker.
Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in June 16, 1903. Ford now encompasses many global brands, including Lincoln and Mercury of the US, Jaguar and Land Rover of the UK, and Volvo of Sweden. Ford also owns a one-third controlling interest in Mazda.
Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, especially elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's combination of highly efficient factories, highly paid workers, and low prices revolutionized manufacturing and came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.
History
Ford was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge who would later found the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company. During its early years, the company produced just a few Model T's a day at its factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on each car from components made to order by other companies. Henry Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, as well as being one of the few to survive the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 100 years.
