It is hard for modern people to imagine the life one hundred years ago. No television， no plastic， no ATMs， no DVDs. Illnesses like tuberculosis， diphtheria， pneumonia meant only death. Of course， cloning appeared only in science fiction. Not to mention， computer and Internet.

Today， our workplace are equipped with assembly lines， fax machines， computers. Our daily life is cushioned by air conditioners， cell phones. Antiobitics helped created a long list of miracle drugs. The bypass operation saved millions. The discovery of DNA has revolutionized the way scientists think about new therapies. Man finally stepped on the magical and mysterious Moon. With the rapid changes we have been experiencing， the anticipation for the future is higher than ever.

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

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 slaughter-houses.

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：

“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.”

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.

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

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.

“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.’”

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

對(duì)于一百年前的生活，今天的人們是很難想象的。沒有電視、沒有塑料、沒有自動(dòng)提款機(jī)、沒有DVD。一些像肺結(jié)核、白喉和肺炎這樣的病是死亡的代名詞。當(dāng)然，人們只有在科幻小說里才會(huì)見得到克隆。更不用說電腦和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)了。

一百年以后的今天，在上班時(shí)，我們有裝配流水線、傳真機(jī)、電腦。空調(diào)、手機(jī)使我們的日常生活變得安逸?？股氐陌l(fā)現(xiàn)使一大批能創(chuàng)造生命奇跡的藥得以面世；心臟搭攝手術(shù)救活了數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的生命；DNA的發(fā)現(xiàn)使科學(xué)家對(duì)治療方法的認(rèn)識(shí)發(fā)生了翻天覆地的變化。人類終于登上了魅力無窮、神秘莫測(cè)的月球。隨著科學(xué)技術(shù)的迅猛發(fā)展，人類對(duì)未來懷有前所未有的憧憬。

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

如果要挑選出那些對(duì)我們所有人的生活都產(chǎn)生過影響的人物來，就不能忽略亨利·福特。從現(xiàn)在起100年后的一位歷史學(xué)家很可能會(huì)得出這樣的結(jié)論：對(duì)各個(gè)地方一切制造業(yè)產(chǎn)生影響最大的是福特，甚至直到今天依然如此，因?yàn)樗_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(chǎng)。

在本世紀(jì)初，屠宰場(chǎng)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(dòng)經(jīng)過，每一個(gè)切肉工人只割下特定的某個(gè)部分。福特將這一過程顛倒過來，試試是否會(huì)加速汽車上一個(gè)叫做磁石發(fā)電機(jī)的部件的生產(chǎn)。不讓每個(gè)工人組裝一臺(tái)完整的磁石發(fā)電機(jī)，而是將發(fā)電機(jī)的一個(gè)部件放在傳送帶上，在它經(jīng)過時(shí)，每個(gè)工人都給它添裝上一個(gè)部件，每次都裝配同樣的一個(gè)部件。特拉華大學(xué)教授戴維·亨謝爾是工業(yè)發(fā)展專家，他談起當(dāng)時(shí)的情況：

“前一天，完成整個(gè)組裝過程的工人，平均每人每20分鐘組裝一臺(tái)磁石發(fā)電機(jī)?？墒悄且惶?，在這條裝配線上的裝配組，每人平均每13分10秒鐘就組裝一臺(tái)?！?/p>

不到一年，裝配時(shí)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(jīng)過，工人們一次只組裝上一個(gè)部件。不久，福特公司一年就生產(chǎn)出幾十萬輛汽車，在當(dāng)時(shí)是一項(xiàng)極出色的成就。這一新的系統(tǒng)如此有效而且經(jīng)濟(jì)合算以致他將自己生產(chǎn)出來的汽車削價(jià)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(shí)是，他寫了一本名為《今天和明天》的書介紹他的革新，來鼓勵(lì)他們這樣做。汽車的時(shí)代到來了。今天，在機(jī)器人和其他形式的自動(dòng)化推動(dòng)下，從烤面包機(jī)到香水，一切的一切，全都是在裝配線上生產(chǎn)出來的。

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(duì)于今天制造工藝取得了如此長足的進(jìn)步是會(huì)驚嘆不已的?！?/p>

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

“當(dāng)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(shí)，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《今夫和明天》里讀到的?！?/p>

他說他的公司已再次發(fā)行了這本書，因?yàn)楦鞯氐闹圃焐探裉烊匀豢梢韵蚝嗬じＬ貙W(xué)習(xí)。