The Failure Of Edsel The Car's The Star

In order for Ford to be able to move forward and be successful they have had to make decisions that may have been difficult but also allowed them to become more efficient and more competitive in the automotive industry. We all remember when the economy started a downturn that affected many businesses including the automotive industry. Ford had already begun to make changes to ensure that they would be able to remain successful and it set Ford apart from other automakers.

Other manufacturers were content to target the wealthy American could buy, not even considering the middle or lower class. Ford developed a design and a method of making the cars that steadily and continuously reduced the cost of the car, the car being the Model T. Instead of pocketing the money from the cars Ford used it to make better and more efficient ways to build a car. As a result, Ford Motor Company sold more cars and steadily increased its earnings. Henry Ford somehow managed to change people from the looking at an automobile as a luxury, and more like a convenience

The Model T Ford was known in every household as the “affordable auto” and Henry Ford set out on a dream to make the Model T a item in every driveway across America and be able to sell them by the multitude (Goss, 2014). However, this dream was not an easy feat for those who wanted the Model T. Henry Ford had to figure out a way to get the automobile to a more affordable and reasonable price that all Americans could handle. With the cost of a Model T in the early 1900’s being $850, approximately $21,000 in today’s market, Henry Ford had to figure out more ways to make the delectable vehicle even more cheaper (Goss, 2014). When Ford first made the Model T in 1908, he had the concept of a cheap car that was attainable to everyone with a very basic, sturdy structure with no additional options from the factory or even the choice of color (Science Odyssey, 1998). After still not being able to fit the cheaper bill that was needed, even after stripping the model to its basic bones, Henry Ford knew that he must find other ways to cut the cost of the Model T to make it more

In a bold stroke in 1928, however, Henry Ford with the assistance of his son, Edsel, introduced a completely redesigned car, which proved to be an instant hit with the public. Ford Motor Company was able to regain much of its stature as a leader in the industry. This popular new car was called the Ford ______________.

Monopolies were on the rise, with the assembly line raising production rates, Ford and Chrysler were able to out-produce their competition, essentially forcing them

With the success of the assembly line, Ford was very please however he had a bigger goal set. Ford wanted to produce cheap cars for the common people to use. Ford made many different types of cars and experimented with each of them. They were all good but not good enough. After many different models, Ford achieved his goal with his invention of the Ford Model T. The Model T was a fully functional compact automobile with a good transmission and torque as well as comfort and size. Apart from that, the most important aspect of the Model T was that is was extremely cheap. As Sobel states,”...the model T was only worth $290 in 1924.” This was a huge

Ford Motor Company has tough competition with European and Japanese manufacturers, therefore the company did not respond well and suffered

Despite of these good things, Ford Motor faced a loss due to some wrong decisions taken by the management regarding their business strategy. The decision of centralizing the management made them think narrowly which results in too much Americanization and ignorance of local market in the rest of the world.

“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” (Henry Ford). Henry Ford is one of the world’s most renowned leaders for the automobile industry. The son of a farmer, Ford has always been interested in how things worked. He has improved the models of his cars to make manufacturing them faster and more efficient by using assembly lines. He also set a balance between his employees’ wages and hours worked. Ford never stopped innovating and it is shown in his later Models of his car. Ford set standards for future motor companies and set standards for modern day manufacturing.

In May of 1968, the Ford Motor Company, based upon a recommendation by then vice-president Lee Iacocca, decided to introduce a subcompact car and produce it domestically.  In an effort to gain a large market share, the automobile was designed and developed on an accelerated schedule.  During the first few years sales of the Pinto were excellent, but there was trouble on the horizon.

Accordingly, “major new-product development activity was replaced by incremental product line extensions” (p.56) that resulted in a major revenue stall. The premature core abandonment cause is illustrated with the Kmart example. While the company was investing in a range of unrelated businesses searching for growth, Wal-Mart developed effective distribution and inventory systems. Kmart’s management failed to monitor and match these systems and fell far behind its rival. Hitachi’s example illustrates the talent bench shortfall. One of the leading causes of the stall was the company had executive management that lacked capabilities.

These early automobiles were loud, uncomfortable, and often dangerous, but that didn’t stop the dreamers and innovators from pushing forward. Henry Ford was one such visionary. He knew early on the automobile industry was going to change America. He strategically positioned himself to be at the forefront of this new invention sweeping the nation.

There was strong competition for Ford in the American small-car market from Volkswagen and several Japanese companies in the 1960’s. To fight the competition, Ford rushed its newest car the Pinto into production in much less time than is usually required to develop a car. The regular time to produce an automobile is 43 months but Ford took 25 months only (Satchi, L., 2005). Although Ford had access to a new design which would decrease the possibility of the Ford Pinto from exploding, the company chose not to implement the design, which would have cost $11 per car, even though it had done an analysis showing that the new design would result in 180 less deaths. The company defended itself on the grounds that

Ford’s dream was to produce a moderate priced, reliable, and efficient automobile, which came with the Model T in 1908.3 A company that started out small, now had over half of the car owners in America driving the Model T.1 It was easy to operate and maintain, it also handled good on rough roads. It was the most popular automobile in history, and over fifteen million were sold. With the Model T, Ford achieved his goal to make reasonable priced cars for the average person. 2

The following case study documents descriptive statistics done after surveys were done by a consumer research organization on the performance of automobiles produced by a Detroit manufacturer. These surveys were designed to evaluate a wide variety of products and services that were available to consumers in order to take a look at consumer satisfaction with the performance of the automobiles. The goal of this study is to identify ways to avoid early transmission problems and to gain full customer satisfaction.