亨利·福特和福特車

A revoluntionary manufacturing process made it possible for anyone to own a car. Henry Ford， the man who put the world on wheels.

一種革命性的制造程序使幾乎每個人都能擁有一輛小汽車。亨利·福特給世界裝上了輪子。

When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives， you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Henry Ford who most influenced all manufacturing. Everywhere， even to this day， by introducing a new way to make cars – one， strange to say， that originated in slaughterhouses.

如果要挑選出那些對我們所有人的生活都產生過影響的人物來，就不能忽略亨利·福特。從現在起100年后的一位歷史學家很可能會得出這樣的結論：對各個地方一切制造業產生影響最大的是福特，甚至直到今天依然如此，因為他開始采用了一種新的制造汽車的方法——奇怪的是這種方法起源于屠宰場。

Back in the early 1900s， slaughterhouses used what could have been called a “dis-assembly line.”That is. The carcass of a slain steer or a pig was moved past various meat-cutters， each of whom cut off only a certain portion. Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker completely assemble a magneto， one of its elements was placed on a conveyer， and each worker， as it passed， added another component to it. The same one each time. Professor David Hounshell，of The University of Delaware ， an expert on industrial development tells what happened:

旗下在本世紀初，屠宰場所使用的可以稱為“拆卸線”，即將一頭宰好的牛體或豬體從很多切肉工人面前移動經過，每一個切肉工人只割下特定的某個部分。福特將這一過程顛倒過來，試試是否會加速汽車上一個叫做磁石發電機的部件的生產。不讓每個工人組裝一臺完整的磁石發電機，而是將發電機的一個部件放在傳送帶上，在它經過時，每個工人都給它添裝上一個部件，每次都裝配同樣的一個部件。特拉華大學教授戴維·亨謝爾是工業發展專家，他談起當時的情況：

“The previous day， workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day， on the line， the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person.”

“前一天，完成整個組裝過程的工人，平均每人每20分鐘組裝一臺磁石發電機?？墒悄且惶欤谶@條裝配線上的裝配組，每人平均每13分10秒鐘就組裝一臺?！?/p>

Within a year， the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913， Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes， partially assembled vehicles were towed past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It wasn’t long before. Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year， a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half， to ’260， putting them within reach of all those who， up until that time， could not afford them. Soon， auto makers the world over copied him. In fact， he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations， entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile had arrived. Today， aided by robots and other forms of automation， everything from toasters to perfumes are made on assembly lines.

不到一年，裝配時間便減到5分鐘。1913年福特改革了裝配汽車的全過程。用繩子鉤住的部分組裝好的車輛被拖著從工人身旁經過，工人們一次只組裝上一個部件。不久，福特公司一年就生產出幾十萬輛汽車，在當時是一項極出色的成就。這一新的系統如此有效而且經濟合算以致他將自己生產出來的汽車削價一半，降至每輛260美元，使那些在此之前一直買不起汽車的人都有能力買了。不久全世界的汽車制造商都仿效起他來。事實是，他寫了一本名為《今天和明天》的書介紹他的革新，來鼓勵他們這樣做。汽車的時代到來了。今天，在機器人和其他形式的自動化推動下，從烤面包機到香水，一切的一切，全都是在裝配線上生產出來的。

Edsel Ford， Henry’s great-grandson， and a Ford vice president: “I think that my greatgrandfather would just be amazed at how far technology has come.”

埃德索爾·福特是亨利的曾孫，也是福特公司的副總裁之一。他說：“我想曾祖父對于今天制造工藝取得了如此長足的進步是會驚嘆不已的。”

Many of today’s innovations come from Japan. Norman Bodek， who publishes books about manufacturing processes， finds this ironic. On a recent trip to Japan he talked to two of the top officials of Toyota.

今天的許多項革新都來自日本，出版過很多關于制造流程的書籍的諾曼·博德克認為這一點具有諷刺意味。不久前他在訪問日本時曾同豐田兩位最高官員談過話。

“When I asked them where these secrets came from， where their ideas came from to manufacture in a totally different way， they laughed， and they said. ’Well. we just read it in Henry Ford’s book from 1926. Today and Tomorrow.’”

“當我問他們這些秘密來自何處，他們從什么地方獲得這些想法以采用完全不同的制造方法時，他們笑了并且說，’喚，我們只不過是從亨利·福特在1926年寫的那本書《今天和明天》里讀到的?！?/p>

His company has reissued the book because， he says， manufacturers everywhere can still learn from Henry Ford.

他說他的公司已再次發行了這本書，因為各地的制造商今天仍然可以向亨利·福特學習。

文字來源：經濟學家網站 翻譯：曹艷

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