Fordism (redirected from Fordist)

Fordism 

the system of organization of assembly-line production that originated in the first quarter of the 20th century in the USA. The system is named after the American engineer and industrialist H. Ford (1863–1947), who was the first to introduce the system at his automobile plants in River Rouge and Dearborn, Mich.

The assembly line (seeCONVEYOR ASSEMBLY) was the basis of Fordism and its new production and work organization techniques. Each worker stationed along the assembly line performed one operation, which consisted of several labor motions or only one motion (for example, turning a nut with a wrench) and which required virtually no skill. According to Ford, 43 percent of the workers required one day of training, 36 percent required between one day and one week, 6 percent required one to two weeks, and 14 percent required one month to one year of training.

The introduction of conveyer assembly, together with other technical innovations, such as standardization of the product and standardization and interchangeability of parts, led to a sharp increase in labor productivity, to the reduction in the prime cost of production, and to the beginning of mass production (seeMASS PRODUCTION and PRODUCTION LINE). At the same time, Fordism led to an unprecedented intensification of labor, to boredom, and to automatism. Fordism is designed to turn workers into robots and entails an extremely high degree of nervous and physical strain. The forced rhythm of labor set by the assembly line necessitated the replacement of piecework pay scales by time scales. Fordism, like the Taylorism that preceded it, became synonymous with those methods of worker exploitation characteristic of the monopolistic stage of capitalism that are designed to increase the profits of capitalist monopolies.

In an effort to suppress the dissatisfaction of the workers and to prevent their organized struggle to protect their rights and interests, Ford introduced a military-type discipline at his plants, instituted a system of spying among the workers, and maintained his own police force to carry out reprisals against worker activists. Labor union activity was prohibited at Ford enterprises for many years.

In the book My Life and Work (1924), Ford claimed to be a social reformer and asserted that his methods of organizing production and work could transform bourgeois society into a society of abundance and social harmony. Ford extolled his system as being solicitous for the workers and boasted that his enterprises paid higher wages than the average in industry. However, the higher earnings were first and foremost associated with the exceptionally high pace of the work, with the rapid depreciation of labor power, and with the task of ever hiring new workers to replace those who were worn out.

Bourgeois ideologues view the opposition of the working people to the destructive social consequences of Fordism as resistance to technical progress. In reality, the working class is waging a struggle not against technical progress but against the capitalistic use of its achievements. Given the modern scientific and technological revolution, the higher general education and skill level of the working class, and the intensification of the workers’ struggle, Fordism has become a stumbling block to the growth of labor productivity.

In the early 1970’s, some capitalist firms conducted experiments on the modification of assembly-line production to reduce monotony, to increase the interest and attractiveness of labor, and consequently to make labor more effective. Assembly lines were redesigned to this end: for example, the lines were shortened, operations were combined, and workers carried through an entire cycle of operations. Bourgeois sociologists frequently depict such measures as a manifestation of the concern of industrialists for the “humanization of labor.” In actuality, however, they are dictated by the striving to adapt Fordism to modern conditions and thereby to improve the methods used to exploit the working people.

Only under socialism is the true humanization of labor possible: man becomes a creative individual, confident of the social usefulness of his work. He comprehends the science of management of production, of the state, and of society. Any form of technical progress, including the conveyer, is used under the conditions of normal intensiveness of labor and is accompanied by the easing and improvement of working conditions.

REFERENCES

Vitte, I. M. Teilor, Dzhil’bert, Ford. Leningrad, 1925.
Lavrov, N. S. Genri Ford i ego proizvodstvo. Leningrad, 1926.
Veis, G. Abbe i Ford (Kapitalisticheskie utopii). Moscow-Leningrad, 1928.
Burlingame, R. Henry Ford. London, 1957.
Hughes, J. T. The Vital Few: American Economic Progress and Its Protagonists. Boston, 1966.

M. G. MOSHENSKII