STFU
Or point out anything about Unions crowding out JIT
Kanzler’s JIT method took an unusual approach in delivering cars to dealers during the winter of 1920-1921. Approximately 6,000 Ford dealers received more cars than they ordered. Along with these extra cars was a delivery of an excessive amount of spare parts. In those days, a Ford dealer’s franchise required dealers to pay in full upon delivery for all cars and spare parts received. While a few dealers refused to pay for cars and parts they did not order or could not sell, most of the dealers borrowed money locally and paid in full. Obviously they wanted to retain their Ford dealer’s franchise. As a result, the Ford Motor Company reduced their excessive inventory of cars and spare parts and subsequently improved their critical cashflow position:
Back in Highland Park, meanwhile, the company had unilaterally changed its own schedule of payments to suppliers from 60 to 90 days, and had also used the generally depressed state of the market to cut its offer prices on raw materials and ready-made parts to the bone. By paying only a skeleton staff of executives and despatchers at Highland Park through the month of January, costs were reduced still further, and by the spring of 1921 Henry Ford could boast that he had paid off all his debts. He had an additional cash surplus in hand of no less than $20 million. Best of all, he had achieved this miracle without borrowing a penny from the bank. As they heard the news, 6,000 or so people around the country knew that they had done the borrowing for him (Lacey, 1986, p. 286).
At the conclusion of the 1920-1921 postwar slump, the Ford Motor Company was leaner and more competitive. For example, during the economically favorable months of 1919, Ford employed 15 workers per completed car per day. When the Highland Park Plant reopened in February 1921 after their downsizing, nine workers were employed per completed car per day. This improvement was accomplished by rehiring fewer workers and speeding up the line. Henry Ford pointed to his increased productivity as one more argument against the bankers. “If we had borrowed,” he said, “we should not have been under the necessity of finding methods to cheapen production” (Lacey, 1986, p. 286
