Introduction: The worldwide automotive industry, including that portion controlled by Ford Motor Company, is affected by a number of factors over which car manufacturers have including general economic conditions worldwide. In the United States, the automotive industry is a highly competitive and cyclical business in which there are a wide variety of product offerings. The number of cars and trucks sold, known as industry demand, can vary substantially from year to year. In addition to general economic conditions, factors influencing industry demand include the cost of purchasing and operating cars and trucks, the availability of credit, the cost of credit and the cost of fuel. According to Thomas Watson, the big three U.S. carmakers continue to compete head to head for market share and dominance in the all-important U.S. auto market (Watson, 2004). Ford's share of the market, the number of vehicles it sells, is affected by a number of factors including how Ford's products compare with those offered by other manufacturers based on Price, Quality, Styling, Reliability, Safety, and Functionality.
Company background: Ford Motor Company began business in 1903. With an initial investment of $28,000, Henry Ford began to build what today is one of the world's largest corporations. Perhaps Ford Motor Company's single greatest contribution to automotive manufacturing was the moving assembly line. This technique greatly increased efficiency through specialization by allowing individual workers to stay in one place and perform the same task repeatedly on multiple vehicles that passed by them.
The company has always been an innovator. For example, Ford established its North American Automotive Operations in 1971, which consolidated its U.S., Canadian, and Mexican operations into one business entity. This was accomplished more than two decades before completion of the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]. Today, Ford is i...