Fordism is a manufacturing technology that serves as the basis of

modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

economic and social systems in industrialized, standardized

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and ba ...

and

mass consumption Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

. The concept is named after

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

. It is used in

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

, and management theory about production,

working conditions {{Short description, 1=Overview of and topical guide to working time and conditions This is a list of topics on working time and conditions. Legislation * See :Employment law Working time * See :Working time * Flextime Working conditions * Bios ...

, consumption, and related phenomena, especially regarding the 20th century. It describes an ideology of advanced capitalism centered around the American socioeconomic systems in place in the post-war economic boom.

Overview

Fordism is "the eponymous manufacturing system designed to produce standardized, low-cost goods and afford its workers decent enough wages to buy them." It has also been described as "a model of economic expansion and technological progress based on mass production: the manufacture of standardized products in huge volumes using special purpose machinery and unskilled labor." Although Fordism was a method used to improve productivity in the automotive industry, the principle could be applied to any kind of manufacturing process. Major success stemmed from three major principles: # The standardization of the product (nothing is handmade, but everything is made through machines and molds by unskilled workers) # The employment of

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...

s, which use special-purpose tools and/or equipment to allow unskilled workers to contribute to the finished product # Workers are paid higher "living" wages so that they can afford to purchase the products they make The principles, coupled with a technological revolution during Henry Ford's time, allowed for his revolutionary form of labor to flourish. His assembly line was revolutionary though not original as it had previously been used at slaughterhouses. His most original contribution to the modern world was breaking down complex tasks into simpler ones, with the help of specialised tools.Edited by; Burrows, Rober; Gilbert, Nigel; Pollert, Anna. ''Fordism and Flexibility: Divisions and Change'' St. Martin's Press (New York: 1992) pp. 13–17. Simpler tasks created interchangeable parts that could be used the same way every time. That allowed for a very adaptable flexibility, creating an assembly line that could change its constituent components to meet the needs of the product being assembled. In reality, the assembly line had existed before Ford, although not in quite the same effectiveness as he would create. His real accomplishment was recognizing the potential by breaking it all down into its components, only to build it back up again in a more effective and productive combination, thereby producing an optimum method for the real world. The major advantages of such a change was that it cut down on the manpower necessary for the factory to operate, and it deskilled the labour itself, cutting down on costs of production. There are four levels of Fordism, as described by

Bob Jessop Bob Jessop (born 3 March 1946) is a British academic who has published extensively on state theory and political economy. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster. Work Jessop's major contribution to s ...

. # Capitalist labour process'':'' Through implementing highly organized, Taylorist methods of production, designed to produce higher output, output can be increased and workers fully utilized. # Accumulation regime: Under the adherence to a belief in a '''virtuous circle of growth'',' by increasing productivity, wages rise resulting in higher productivity, demand, investment, and operational efficacy. # Social mode of economic regulation: Clarity is gained by analyzing the in/outflow of capital, both in

micro Micro may refer to: Measurement * micro- (μ), a metric prefix denoting a factor of 10−6 Places * Micro, North Carolina, town in U.S. People * DJ Micro, (born Michael Marsicano) an American trance DJ and producer * Chii Tomiya (都宮ち ...

- ages, internal movementand macro- onetary body, commerciality, external relations # Generic mode of 'societalization': Deciphering State's and company's roles in the day-to-day economic lifestyles and patterns of the workforce, their economic habits, and the regional impact.

Background

The

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

was one of several hundred small automobile manufacturers that emerged between 1890 and 1910. After five years of producing automobiles, Ford introduced the

Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

, which was simple and light but sturdy enough to drive on the country's primitive roads.Foner, Eric (2006). ''Give Me Liberty!: An American History''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, pp. 591–592. The mass production of this automobile lowered its unit price, making it affordable for the average consumer. Furthermore, Ford substantially increased his workers' wages to combat rampant absenteeism and employee turnover, which approached 400% annually, which had the byproduct of giving them the means to become customers. That led to massive consumption. In fact, the Model T surpassed all expectations because it attained a peak of 60% of the automobile output within the United States. The production system that Ford exemplified involved synchronization, precision, and specialization within a company. Ford and his senior managers did not use the word "Fordism" themselves to describe their motivations or worldview, which they did not consider an " ism". However, many contemporaries framed their worldview as one and applied the name Fordism to it.

History

The term gained prominence when it was used by

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fo ...

in 1934 in his essay "Americanism and Fordism" in his '' Prison Notebooks''. Since then, it has been used by a number of writers on

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

and society, mainly but not exclusively in the

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

tradition. According to historian

Charles S. Maier Charles S. Maier (born February 23, 1939, in New York City) is the Leverett Saltonstall Research Professor of History at Harvard University. He teaches European and international history at Harvard. Biography Maier served as the director of the ...

, Fordism proper was preceded in Europe by

Taylorism Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineeri ...

, a technique of labor discipline and workplace organization, based upon supposedly scientific studies of human efficiency and incentive systems. It attracted European intellectuals, especially in Germany and Italy, from the ''

fin de siècle () is a French term meaning "end of century,” a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom "turn of the century" and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without context, ...

'' to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. After 1918, however, the goal of Taylorist labor efficiency thought in Europe moved to "Fordism", the reorganization of the entire productive process by the moving assembly line, standardization, and the mass market. The grand appeal of Fordism in Europe was that it promised to sweep away all the archaic residues of precapitalist society, by subordinating the economy, society, and even the human personality to the strict criteria of technical rationality. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

blurred the utopian vision of American

technocracy Technocracy is a form of government in which the decision-maker or makers are selected based on their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts wi ...

, but

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and its aftermath revived the ideal. Later, under the inspiration of Gramsci, Marxists picked up the Fordism concept in the 1930s and developed

Post-Fordism Post-Fordism is the dominant system of economic production, consumption, and associated socio-economic phenomena in most industrialized countries since the late 20th century. It is contrasted with Fordism, the system formulated in Henry Ford's a ...

in the 1970s. Antonio and Bonanno (2000) trace the development of Fordism and subsequent economic stages, from globalization to neoliberal globalization, during the 20th century, and emphasized the United States role in globalization. "Fordism," for Gramsci, meant routine, intensified labor to promote production. Antonio and Bonanno argue that Fordism peaked in the post-World War II decades of American dominance and mass

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

but collapsed from political and cultural attacks on the people in the 1970s. Advances in technology and the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

ushered in a new "neoliberal" phase of globalization in the 1990s. Antonio and Bonanno further suggest that negative elements of Fordism, such as economic inequality, remained, allowing related cultural and environmental troubles, which inhibited America's pursuit of democracy to surface. Historian Thomas Hughes has detailed how the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, in the 1920s and the 1930s, enthusiastically embraced Fordism and Taylorism by importing American experts in both fields as well as American engineering firms to build parts of its new industrial infrastructure. The concepts of the Five-Year Plan and the centrally-

planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, ...

can be traced directly to the influence of Taylorism on Soviet thinking. Hughes quotes

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

:Hughes, 2004. Hughes describes how, as the Soviet Union developed and grew in power, both the Soviets and the Americans chose to ignore or deny the contribution of American ideas and expertise. The Soviets did so because they wished to portray themselves as creators of their own destiny and not indebted to their rivals, while the Americans did so because they did not wish to acknowledge, during the Cold War, their part in creating a powerful rival.

Post-Fordism

The period after Fordism has been termed

Post-Fordist Post-Fordism is the dominant system of economic production, consumption, and associated socio-economic phenomena in most industrialized countries since the late 20th century. It is contrasted with Fordism, the system formulated in Henry Ford's au ...

and Neo-Fordist. The former implies that global capitalism has made a clean break from Fordism, including overcoming its inconsistencies, but the latter implies that elements of the Fordist ROA continued to exist. The Regulation School preferred the term After-Fordism (or the French ''Après-Fordisme'') to denote that what comes after Fordism was or is not clear.Hall, S. Brave new world. ''Marxism Today'', October 1988, p. 24. In Post-Fordist economies: * New information technologies are important. * Products are marketed to

niche market A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that i ...

s rather than in mass consumption patterns based on

social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, inc ...

. *

Service industries Service industries are those not directly concerned with the production of physical goods (such as agriculture and manufacturing). Some service industries, including transportation, wholesale trade and retail trade are part of the supply chain de ...

predominate over manufacturing. * The workforce is feminized. * Financial markets are globalized. *White collar creativity is needed *Workers do not stay in one job for their whole life *'Just-in-time' systems in which products are manufactured after orders are placed

Cultural references

The mass-produced

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Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...

's play '' R.U.R.'' have been described as representing "the traumatic transformation of modern society by the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the Fordist assembly line." A religion based on the worship of

is a central feature of the

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

's ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...

'', where the principles of mass production are applied to the generation of people as well as to industry.Elon Musk's Brave New World: it worked for Henry Ford; why not Tesla? : The Conversation
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References

Bibliography

* Antonio, Robert J. and Bonanno, Alessandro. "A New Global Capitalism? From 'Americanism and Fordism' to 'Americanization-globalization.'" ''American Studies'' 2000 41 (2–3): 33–77. . * Banta, Martha. ''Taylored Lives: Narrative Production in the Age of Taylor, Veblen, and Ford.'' U. of Chicago Press, 1993. 431 pp. * Baca, George. "Legends of Fordism." ''Social Analysis'' Fall 2004: 171–180. * * Doray, Bernard (1988). ''From Taylorism to Fordism: A Rational Madness''. * Holden, Len. "Fording the Atlantic: Ford and Fordism in Europe" in ''Business History ''Volume 47, #1 January 2005 pp. 122–127. * * Hughes, Thomas P. (2004). ''American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970''. 2nd ed. The University of Chicago Press

* Jenson, Jane. "'Different' but Not 'Exceptional': Canada's Permeable Fordism," ''Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology,'' Vol. 26, 1989. * Koch, Max. (2006). ''Roads to Post-Fordism: Labour Markets and Social Structures in Europe.'' * Ling, Peter J. ''America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform, and Social Change'' chapter on "Fordism and the Architecture of Production" * Link, Stefan J. ''Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order'' (2020
excerpt
* Maier, Charles S. "Between Taylorism and Technocracy: European Ideologies and the Vision of Industrial Productivity." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1970) 5(2): 27–61. Fulltext online at Jstor * Nolan, Maty. ''Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany'' Oxford University Press
1994 online
* Mead, Walter Russell. "The Decline of Fordism and the Challenge to American Power." ''New Perspectives Quarterly''; Summer 2004: 53–61. * Meyer, Stephen. (1981) "The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908–1921" State University of New York Press. * Spode, Hasso. "Fordism, Mass Tourism and the Third Reich." ''Journal of Social History'' 38(2004): 127–155. * Pietrykowski, Bruce. "Fordism at Ford: Spatial Decentralization and Labor Segmentation at the Ford Motor Company, 1920–1950," ''Economic Geography'', Vol. 71, (1995) 383–40
online
* Roediger, David, ed. "Americanism and Fordism - American Style: Kate Richards O'hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good?'" ''Labor History'' 1988 29(2): 241–252. ''Socialist praise for Ford in 1916.'' * Settis, Bruno. (2016) ''Fordismi. Storia politica della produzione di massa'', Il Mulino, Bologna. * Shiomi, Haruhito and Wada, Kazuo. (1995). ''Fordism Transformed: The Development of Production Methods in the Automobile Industry'' Oxford University Press. * Tolliday, Steven and Zeitlin, Jonathan eds. (1987) ''The Automobile Industry and Its Workers: Between Fordism and Flexibility'' ''Comparative analysis of developments in Europe, Asia, and the United States from the late 19th century to the mid-1980s.'' * Watts, Steven. (2005).'' The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century''. * Williams, Karel, Colin Haslam and John Williams, "Ford versus 'Fordism': The Beginning of Mass Production?" ''Work, Employment & Society'', Vol. 6, No. 4, 517–555 (1992). ''Stress on Ford's flexibility and commitment to continuous improvements.'' * Gielen, Pascal. (2009). The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude. Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism. Valiz: Amsterdam. {{Henry Ford Production economics Manufacturing Social theories Late modern economic history Henry Ford History of science and technology in the United States Economic history of the United States Modernity Modes of production