1. Fordism, named as such in reference to the surname of its creator Henry Ford, is a semi-automatic large-scale production model designed to improve productivity at lower costs.
Etymology: Constituted from its highest manager, Ford, by the American businessman Henry Ford (1863-1947), and the suffix -ism, owned by the system.
Grammatical category: masculine noun
in syllables: for-dis-mo.
fordism
It is popularly known as fordism to the chain or series production mode that Henry Ford opportunely imposedone of the most popular car manufacturers in the world, founder of the mega car manufacturer Ford.
Chain production mode imposed by the automobile businessman Henry Ford, in the 20th century, and that would revolutionize the market due to its ability to reduce costs, produce more and bring luxury goods closer to the less affluent classes
The aforementioned production system created by Ford debuted with the production of Ford Model T in the year 1908; It was about one combination and general organization of work highly specialized and regulated from assembly lines, special machines, higher wages and greater number of employees.
Division of labor and assembly line
The system consisted of the division of labor in an important way, that is, the production in question was segmented as much as possible, with a worker who would have to repeatedly take charge of the task that was assigned to him.
Each element produced by Fordism was made in stages, which popularized the so-called assembly line. This made large-scale production possible at low costs for the company. A real commercial success for those times. Basically, Fordism allowed goods considered luxury, such is the case of a car, intended and produced for the elite, now they could also be acquired by the popular and middle classes of society. This lower cost favored the product being assigned an accessible value to these social segments. As an inevitable consequence and associated with this, the market expanded in a fantastic way.
This innovative production model meant a true revolution in terms of productivity and access to the mass market as a result of the cost reduction that was achieved through its implementation.
It was used first and almost exclusively by the automotive industry during the 20th century, between the 1940s and approximately until the 1970s.
The workers improve their economic situation
The success of this system, in addition to being reflected as we already pointed out in the matter of reducing costs and increasing production, had a positive impact on the salary improvement of employees, who were favored significantly, and of course, when the employee is happy, he works much more and produces better for the company…
Likewise, this system demanded the hiring of more personnel, a fact that of course benefited employment rates that were increased and obviously this ends up having a positive impact on the country’s statistics.
As a consequence of the success achieved, it was implemented by other countries in addition to USA and remained as a model until the 1970s when it was replaced by the Japanese and Korean model: Toyotism.
Superseded by the Japanese model or Toyotism
The new proposal differs from the previous one due to the flexibility that it proposes from the management and organization just in time or just in timeas it is called in the original language.
Unlike Fordism, Toyotism does not produce based on assumptions but on realities: what is needed is produced, in the quantity that is needed, and at the time it turns out to be needed.
This model promotes the elimination of those costs that are linked to the storage of inputs for production, a fact that inevitably impacts the final price of the product. So, it proposes instead that production be governed or moved by real demand, only producing what was sold.
Fordism turns out to be profitable only in those contexts of a developed economy in which it is possible to sell at a relatively low price in relation to average wages.
Fordism appeared at the beginning of the last century, exhibiting its benefits in terms of specialization, transformation of the current industrial scheme and cost reduction. Fordism thought like this: having a greater volume of units of a product x, thanks to assembly technology. and if the cost is reduced, there will be a production surplus that will exceed the consumption capacity of the elite.
Advantages and disadvantages
Two consequences that Fordism brought with it were the appearance of a skilled worker and the american middle class also known as the american way of living.
But there are disadvantages and undoubtedly one of the most important is the exclusion from control of production time by the working classsomething that did happen before Fordism when the worker, in addition to being the owner of the labor force, had the necessary knowledge to carry out the work autonomously, leaving capitalism outside the control of production times.