Manufacturing · Profile from Manufacturing Research Companion: Companies, Strategic Moves, and Technical Studies
Ford Motor
The Dearborn, Michigan carmaker that Henry Ford founded in 1903 and turned into the archetype of mass production — the moving assembly line at Highland Park (1913), the $5 day (1914) and the River Rouge complex where ore went in at one end and cars came out at the other — and that, a century later, is a pickup-truck company with an electric-vehicle problem. Ford's manufacturing story turns on volume and process as its original edge, financing for the trough as the decision that saved it, and an EV bet sized for demand that did not arrive. The Model T's falling cost curve made Ford the world's largest carmaker until a single product ran out of buyers (the 1927 shutdown for the Model A). In 2006 Ford mortgaged nearly everything it owned, including the blue-oval trademark, for ~$23.5bn of credit and so was the only Detroit Three company to get through 2009 without bankruptcy. From 2021 it split itself into Ford Blue, Ford Model e and Ford Pro and committed tens of billions to EV plants; on 15 Dec 2025 it announced ~$19.5bn of special charges, ended the battery-electric F-150 Lightning and turned its EV plants toward extended-range trucks, cheaper EVs and battery storage. The F-Series and Ford Pro, not the EVs, pay for everything.
At a glance
- Founded
- Ford Motor Company incorporated 16 Jun 1903, Detroit (from memory, verify); Henry Ford's third car venture after the Detroit Automobile Company and the Henry Ford Company (from memory, verify)
- Headquarters
- Dearborn, Michigan (new Dearborn campus opened in phases 2024–26, reported, verify); Michigan Central Station in Detroit restored as a technology hub (2024, reported)
- Ownership / structure
- Public (NYSE: F). The Ford family controls ~40% of voting power through Class B shares despite owning a small share of equity (company proxy, from memory, verify %)
- Leadership (2026)
- Jim Farley, president and CEO since 1 Oct 2020 (from memory, verify); Bill Ford (William Clay Ford Jr.), executive chair
- Segments
- Ford Blue (petrol and hybrid vehicles), Ford Model e (EVs and software), Ford Pro (commercial vehicles, fleet, parts and services) — reporting segments from 2023 (company, from memory, verify); Ford Credit; Ford Energy (battery-storage business, launched 11 May 2026 — equal to ../../../Energy/)
- Scale
- 2025: revenue a record ~$187.3bn with a net loss ~$8.2bn after the EV special items (company release, Feb 2026, reported); Model e EBIT loss ~$4.8bn (2025), ~$5.1bn (2024), ~$4.7–4.8bn (2023) (10-Ks; the 2023 figure was restated slightly). Q3 2026 (28 Oct 2026): revenue ~$49.5bn (−2%), adjusted EBIT ~$2.7bn, net income ~$2.0bn, adjusted FCF ~$4.7bn; Model e EBIT loss ~$1.1bn on ~$1.2bn revenue; 2026 adjusted EBIT guidance $10.5–11bn (company, reported)
- Plants (US, selected)
- Dearborn Truck and the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (Dearborn, Michigan); Kansas City Assembly (Missouri); Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly (Kentucky); Michigan Assembly (Wayne); Chicago Assembly; Ohio Assembly (Avon Lake); BlueOval City (Stanton, Tennessee); BlueOval Battery Park Michigan (Marshall); Kentucky battery plants (Glendale) taken over from the BlueOval SK JV (reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Highland Park moving line and $5 day (1913–14); River Rouge vertical integration (1917–28); the Model A changeover shutdown (1927); Deming and "Quality is Job 1" (1980s); the Firestone tyre crisis (2000–01); "The Way Forward" and the 2006 mortgage of assets; the aluminium F-150 (2015); Ford+, Model e and BlueOval (2021–22); the ~$19.5bn EV reset (Dec 2025)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1913
Highland Park Moving Line and the Five Dollar Day
Production-system change (the moving assembly line) plus labour agreement (the $5 day, a unilateral pay and hours policy)
1917
River Rouge Vertical Integration
New plant (greenfield) and make-vs-buy / vertical integration
1927
Model A Changeover Shutdown
Product and platform change forced by market loss (near-failure), with a plant-wide retooling shutdown
1980
Deming and Quality Is Job One
Production-system change (statistical quality control, employee involvement) and product-programme change (Taurus)
2000
Firestone Tyre Crisis
Quality failure and recall (supplier defect on the best-selling SUV), followed by a supplier break and a Ford-funded tyre replacement
2006
The Way Forward and the 23 5bn Mortgage
Restructuring (plant closures and job cuts) and financing (secured borrowing against nearly all assets)
2015
Aluminium F 150
Product and process bet — switching the body of America's best-selling vehicle from steel to high-strength aluminium alloys
2021
Ford Plus Model e and BlueOval
Strategy pivot and new plants: an EV programme with dedicated assembly and battery plants, joint ventures and a licence, and a reorganisation into Ford Blue, Model e and Ford Pro
2025
EV Reset and the Lightning EREV
Restructuring and write-down (failure of the first EV programme); product and plant reassignment; dissolution of a battery JV