Exploring Our Industrial Heritage: Oklahoma City, OK (Part I)
The Model-T & Industry 4.0 (Part I)
A few months ago, I slept in a Ford Model-T plant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (OKC). You may be asking yourself, how is that possible? Well I was able to sleep in this old Ford plant because in 2016 it was converted into a museum hotel called 21c. The renovators who converted this Model-T plant into a museum hotel did a great job maintaining the look and feel of the factory but added very modern hotel rooms and integrated a modern art museum on all four stories of their new hotel. It’s very cool and I highly recommend staying there if you are ever in OKC!
Additionally, I was able to dine in this old factory too because there is a fantastic restaurant called The Jones Assembly that exists literally on the floor of what was the Model-T assembly room. Again, the renovators did an amazing job of maintaining the factory’s old industrial look, but they modernized the space to create an exciting atmosphere with a fun vibe, great food and live music. Between the hotel and the restaurant, it was the most comfortable factory that I’ve ever spent time in!
While in OKC, I got curious as to the history of Model-T production and I did some research. I knew some things already, but clearly not everything. The Model-T launched in 1908 and demand grew quickly. But did you know that a huge part of their future success was due to an employee named James Couzens.? In 1911, Couzens was sent on a trip to the west coast of the US with a goal to locate future Model-T warehouses. But instead, he came back with a revolutionary idea: instead of shipping and storing cars in locations across the country, Couzens’ idea was to ship Model-T parts and assemble Model-T’s at branch factory locations throughout the US. The Board of Directors at Ford approved his plan - it turns out it was much less expensive to ship automobile parts within the US than it was to ship fully assembled automobiles.
With Couzens’ branch concept approved, Ford began building branch assembly factories in towns and cities across the USA. The plant in OKC employed about 1500 people and produced over 200 vehicles per day. The plant staffing and output was similar at all 28 locations. Ford’s Model-T was not only changing the way people traveled, it also changed the finances of many families and the economies of towns, cities and states.
Ford’s plan was an undeniable success! Nineteen years, 28 assembly factories and 15 million cars later the Model-T established market dominance and its place in automobile history. Fred Jones, Ford’s leading car dealer, owned ten Model-T dealerships in the OKC area and he once told Henry Ford, “You make ‘em and we'll sell ’em.” Selling Model-T’s seemed almost too easy. Now, across the street from the 21c hotel in OKC is a bronze statue of this influential businessman. In OKC Fred Jones is a historic figure. Jones' ability to sell the Model-T had as much economic impact as Ford’s ability to produce them. The fact that Ford and Jones remain historic center pieces in OKC, 100 years later, is a testimony to their enduring impact in the region.
At the time, Ford’s snowballing success seemed unstoppable, that was until a competitor came up with a great idea of their own. It was Alfred Sloan and General Motors (GM) who developed a successful strategy that eventually dominated the auto market. At first GM was trying to compete with Ford on the grounds of product quality and innovative technology but that strategy failed them. So GM shifted gears and decided to compete with the Model-T using a strategy that offered consumers more variety with automobile options and faster speed to market with new designs.
I’ve heard people bash Henry Ford for his Model-T strategy. He said, “A customer can have any color car they want, as long as it’s black.” But I find it difficult to find fault with that strategy. When you’re the only game in town, then the more you make, the more you can sell and that’s what Ford did. And it worked. Ford had dominated the auto industry until 1926, but then in 1927 GM took Ford's market dominance away.
Ford’s downfall wasn’t in his strategy to mass produce one color of Model-T for 19 years. Ford’s failure was because he failed to be nimble in a changing market. You see GM didn’t produce a better car, GM just got quicker than Ford. They became quicker to change paint colors, quicker to design new models and quicker to retool their factories. GM was offering a rainbow of color options and new models every year and meanwhile Ford had to endure a 6-month shutdown to retool their plants when transitioning from the Model-T to the Model-A.
Because of the shift in market conditions, automobile assembly at the Ford OKC branch ceased in November 1932. This came after 16 years of successful operations.
How does our case study of the Model-T apply to Industry 4.0 and manufacturing businesses today? Find out in our T4T Article: Exploring Our Industrial Heritage: OKC - The Model-T & Industry 4.0 (Part II).
Enjoy my other industrial explorations: Whiskey Country and The Illinois River Valley.
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