Focus on productivity, not efficiency
Doing more with less vs. doing more with the same
12 hours.
That’s how long it took to build a car before 1913.
Over the next several years, Henry Ford reduced the time-consuming process to an impressive 2.5 hours.
His goal was simple — make automobile ownership possible for every American by lowering the cost of production.
What wasn’t so simple?
Figuring out exactly how to do more with less.
As a child, Ford stayed awake at night on his family’s farm, taking watches apart and putting them back together again.
His father didn’t support his ambitions, so young Ford ran away to apprentice at a machine shop when he was 16 years old.
Nearing the age of 40, Ford was often looked upon as a daydreamer by acquaintances; they criticized him for preferring to “tinker with odd machines” than work a steady job.
Lucky for us, some of Ford’s friends did believe in him. The future icon started his company with an initial investment of $28,000 and never looked back.
Ford studied the continuous-flow manufacturing processes of breweries, flour-mills and meat-packing plants, before borrowing their ideas to…
