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Today and Tomorrow - Special Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic Editorial Review:
Henry Ford
Today and Tomorrow
Commemorative Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic
Originally published in 1926, Today and Tomorrow, written by the world's most famous automaker, Henry Ford, reveals the thinking that changed industry forever.
Ford's ideas have never stopped having an impact. Taiichi Ohno, the creator of the Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing system, freely acknowledges that a key stimulus to JIT was his close reading of Ford. Today these same ideas have re-emerged to revitalize industry around the world.
Today and Tomorrow chronicles Ford's progressive vision. It was his credo of using low-cost, high-quality production to win market share that inspired the Japanese to do the same. In these 24 chapters, Ford discusses topics that are just as relevant today as they were in 1926, at the height of Henry Ford's success:
· Money, power, and big business
· Work standards, time, and motion
· Learning from waste
· Wages, hours, and employee motivation
· The power of education
Today, Henry Ford's ideas warrant a second look. He doubled wages, cut the price of a car in half, and produced over 2 million units a year. Time has not diminished the impact of his business philosophy, or his profound influence on worldwide industry. You will be enlightened by what you read and intrigued by the words of this colorful and remarkable man.
This updated printing of Today and Tomorrow features a new introduction by James J. Padilla, Group Vice President North America for Ford Motor Company. It also includes an enhanced selection of photos illustrating the processes and facilities Ford covers in the text as well as an updated chronology of the Ford Motor Company.
Customer Reviews:
Today and Tomorrw
Book is great for anyone who is interested in Project Management or just manufacturing and life lessons in all. This book teaches one so many different things that it's hard to say where to classify it under. Put it under the must read section. Jdv.
Very interesting book, especially when realizing it was written in 1920's!
Very good read - interesting ideas, thoughts, especially when you keep in mind that this was written decades ago. Mr. Ford was very forward thinking. Captures more than just automotive, but ideas about livelihood, wages, government, health, and more.
Mind-blowing! Must-have item!
Being employed in the car industry, finding a book like this is particularly useful as I can relate to a lot of what HF has written. What's really surprising is, he writes of things which are rational and based on common sense, but many don't seem to speak about or even practice in their daily work! Much of what is today attributed to Toyota was common practice at Ford factories in the 1920s! Ford was a world leader and pioneer in the field of mass producing automobiles, and companies like Volkswagen even used American mass production machinery. People who have been reading Kaizen, JIT, the Toyota Way, etc. should buy this book and study history. Henry Ford, American Military Training-Within-Industry and W.E. Deming's influence and contribution to the rise of post-war Japan cannot be denied. One of HF's many enlightening observations: Big business is not money power, it is service power!
The Begining of Lean
If you would like to know who really started the Lean Journey look no further than Henry Ford
An historical document of our contemporary
There are different "uses" for this book - some I'd recommend, and others not.
I WOULD NOT recommend this book for it's insights on -
Economics: Ford explains a classic industrial notion that a company paying employees more will increase its sales because employees will buy more company product. Not only is this a false assumption of employee behavior, it also only approaches plausibility for very large consumer product companies.
Finance: Ford describes how financial instruments are short-term narcotics and long-term ills. His opinion seems to ignore the buffering benefits of finance, as well as the gains created for society by letting financial tools open possibilities.
HOWEVER, YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK BECAUSE -
It is current: Ford describes a organizational skill poorly understood and mostly ignored: coordination. In the book, many processes are described that Ford says are all well known to other companies, but how the Ford Corporation made the processes interact was their power. Today's out-sourcing is more palatable knowing this skill.
It is insightful: An excellent alternative to the "profit-motive" of companies is presented: service-motive. Not because profits are bad does Ford present the service-motive, but because profits are give unreliable feedback. Ford sees the maintenance of service to the public as a more durable goal.
It is historical: Not only does it provide the roots to Taiichi Ohno's - Toyota's - operations strategy, but it also gives clues to why Ford lost dominance. The Toyota roots pop up in Ford's writing on waste, on cleanliness (5s), on continuous flow, and on timing. The clues pop up with his ignorance of customer desires vs. needs, his overconfidence in managing highly diverse businesses, and his inattention to downstream processes.
If you know the limitations of Today and Tomorrow, you then can reap great benefits by reading it as if it was written last week. Many of its ideas have yet to fully play out in the world of industry.
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