Things Get Better As You Go

More than 100 years ago, Henry Ford proactively developed one of the world''s first mass production systems to improve productivity. Driven by an audacious goal of lowering the cost of cars so that even their manufacturers could afford one, Ford simultaneously experimented with a variety of techniques, including parts that could interchangeable, standard production lines and processes. He focused on perfecting mass production - a process that would eventually reduce the cost of a car from $700 to less than $300.

In the late 1920s, a Japanese businessman named Taiichi Ohno visited Henry Ford to see how American companies applied mass production. Ohno''s most important discovery during the trip was Ford''s success in reducing the production time of a car from 700 minutes to less than 90 minutes.