Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
General Motors was founded in 1908, the same year the Model T was launched. Its founder, William C. Durant, had made a fortune in carriagemaking and decided to move into cars. He established GM as a holding company and immediately acquired Buick, a carmaker he already controlled, followed by a string of other carmakers, including Oakland, Oldsmobil
... See moreTom Standage • A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
Sorensen’s “crowning achievement,” Ford historian Ford R. Bryan wrote in 1993, was the “design of the production layout of the mammoth Willow Run Bomber Plant.” Others have cited as Sorensen’s greatest accomplishment his role in the development of mass production.
Charles E. Sorensen • My Forty Years With Ford (Great Lakes Books Series)
Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T was a fantastic innovation. But its biggest impact, by far, was turning ordinary people into drivers.
Michael Schrage • Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?
Henry Ford said:
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
Y Combinator disagrees:
“Talk to your users.”
Leber • The Feedback Tradeoff
Mr. Chrysler was a man of high ambition and imagination. He was a practical man with broad capabilities; his genius I think was in the organization of automobile production. Like Mr. Nash, he recognized the opportunity offered by the young and promising automobile business. They both were true leaders of its early development and became heads of gr
... See moreAlfred P Sloan Jr. • My Years With General Motors
Its 20-horsepower engine, powerful by comparison with other cars in 1908, had been overtaken by the 1920s. Meanwhile, and other carmakers also offered better performance, comfort and styling. The Model T’s unchanging features and basic design became a joke, but that was fine with Ford, which revelled in its no-nonsense reputation for cheapness and
... See moreTom Standage • A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
As a result, Ford Motor Company emerged from World War II to peacetime manufacture of automobiles with five great advantages over its competitors: First, as we have seen, it had its own source of raw materials. Second, it had the world’s greatest, most complete industrial manufacturing plant—the biggest machine shop on earth. Third, the Rouge plant
... See moreCharles E. Sorensen • My Forty Years With Ford (Great Lakes Books Series)
Because of the kaizen philosophy, Toyota reportedly implements a staggering one million new ideas each year – the majority of which are suggestions made by ordinary factory-floor workers.