Clarence W. Avery - Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

In Detroit, one of Avery's pupils was a teenaged Edsel Ford; the young Ford was taken with Avery's mechanical ingenuity. In 1912, Avery casually mentioned to Edsel his desire to enter the automobile business. Edsel introduced Avery to his father, Henry Ford. The elder Ford immediately hired Avery as Charles E. Sorensen's assistant at his Highland Park plant. Sorenson put Avery through an extensive eight-month training course, where he worked in every phase of production at the plant, learning the system.

With that experience, Avery's first large project was the establishment of a moving assembly line at the plant. The assembly line project was worked on by a number of Ford's top men, including C. Harold Wills, Peter E. Martin, and Charles Ebender in addition to Avery and Sorenson. Although credit for the moving assembly line can't be pinned to one individual, those who took part acknowledged Avery as the guiding light of the project, and he became Ford's time study expert. By the end of 1913, the project had reduced assembly time for a Model T from 12.5 man-hours down to 2.7 man-hours. Later improvements reduced that time to only 1.5 man-hours.

Avery soon had a reputation for himself as a problem-solver, and was eventually promoted to Ford's chief development engineer. He continued work on Ford's assembly line, designing operations for sub-assemblies leading into the final assembly. In 1918, Ford assigned Avery to the task of increasing the clarity of automotive glass. Avery experimented with a novel procedure of pouring molten glass onto a moving table, and by 1921 Ford had a system in place. In 1920, Avery was put in charge of Ford's iron and lumber operations in northern Michigan.

In 1922, Ford purchased Lincoln, and Avery worked closely with Edsel Ford to Fordize the Lincoln design and manufacture. This cooperation continued until 1927. In 1927, main Ford operations were transferred to the Rouge plant. Top Ford management, headed by Sorensen, was not receptive to Avery, and he decided to leave Ford.

Read more about this topic:  Clarence W. Avery

Other articles related to "company, motors, ford motor company, ford":

Leon Bates (American Labor Leader) - UAW Years
... bargaining agreement with the Briggs Manufacturing Company ... They had organized Chrysler and General Motors and they were having a significant amount of success with organizing the smaller parts suppliers and manufacturers, i.e ... The UAW had been working on organizing the Ford Motor Company employees for some time, then came May 26, 1937 and the UAW's clash with the Ford Motor Company security guards sometimes ...
Ford Motor Company - Sponsorships
... Ford sponsors numerous events and sports facilities around the US, most notably Ford Center (now Chesapeake Energy Arena) in downtown Oklahoma City and Ford Field in ...
Maria Eugenia Sampallo - Return of Peronism - Isabel Perón's Government - Left-wing Terrorism in The Automotive Industry
... Oberdan Sallustro, director-general of the Fiat Concord company in Argentina–which manufactured cars, rolling stock and power generators under ... On 21 May 1973, Luis Giovanelli, a Ford Motor Company executive, was killed and a female employee was wounded when machine-gunned by the ERP guerrillas in a kidnapping attempt ... On 25 May, ERP guerrillas attempted to kill two Ford Motor Company executives but only wounded them ...
Landie - History - Sale To Tata
... In June 2007, Ford Motor Company announced its plan to sell Land Rover, along with Jaguar ... Ford retained the services of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise it on the details of the deal ... equity firm, Alchemy Partners, and the India-headquartered Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra expressed interest in purchasing Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company ...

Famous quotes containing the words company, ford and/or motor:

    “In your company a man could die,” I said, “a man could die and you wouldn’t even notice, there’s no trace of friendship, a man could die in your company.”
    Max Frisch (1911–1991)

    Government ... thought [it] could transform the country through massive national programs, but often the programs did not work. Too often they only made things worse. In our rush to accomplish great deeds quickly, we trampled on sound principles of restraint and endangered the rights of individuals.
    —Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)

    This biplane is the shape of human flight.
    Its name might better be First Motor Kite.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)