Ford

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales, following Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands sold in the US and elsewhere, Ford's international brands also include Volvo of Sweden; and Ford owns a one-third controlling interest in Mazda of Japan, and a small holding in former subsidiary Aston Martin of England. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008.

In 2007, Ford became the third-ranked automaker in US sales, after General Motors and Toyota, falling from the second-ranked automaker position for the first time in the previous 56 years. Globally, Ford fell to the fourth-ranked spot after Volkswagen based on 2007 sales. Ford is the overall seventh-ranked American-based company in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2007 of $172.5 billion.[2] In 2007 Ford produced 6.553 million automobiles and employed about 245,000 employees at around 100 plants and facilities worldwide.[1] Also in 2007, Ford received more initial quality survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker, with five vehicles ranking at the top of their categories,[3] and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.[4]

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914.