|
The Ford Motor Company
(NYSE: F)
is an American
multinational corporation
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, Ford also
owns a small stake in
Mazda in Japan and
Aston Martin in the UK.
Ford's former UK subsidiaries
Jaguar and
Land Rover were sold to
Tata Motors of India in
March 2011. In 2011 Ford sold
Volvo to
Geely Automobile.[5]
Ford will discontinue the
Mercury brand at the end of
2011.
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.
Ford is currently the second largest automaker in the
U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world based on number
of vehicles sold annually, directly behind
Volkswagen Group.[6]
In 2007, Ford fell from second to third in US annual
vehicle sales for the first time in 56 years, behind
only
General Motors and
Toyota. However, Ford occasionally outsells Toyota
in shorter periods (most recently, during the summer
months of 2011). By the end of 2011, Ford was the third
largest automaker in Europe (behind Volkswagen and
PSA Peugeot Citroën).[7]
Ford is the seventh-ranked overall American-based
company in the 2011
Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2011
of $146.3 billion.[8]
In 2011, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles[9]
and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants
and facilities worldwide. During the
automotive crisis, Ford's worldwide unit volume
dropped to 4.817 million in 2011. Despite the adverse
conditions, Ford ended 2011 with a net profit of $2.7
billion.[10]
Starting in 2007, Ford received more initial quality
survey awards from
J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker.
Five of Ford's vehicles ranked at the top of their
categories[11]
and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.[12]
Above courtesy of
Wikipeda
- Ford
|
