The fordist model of production was based on the large factory and mass
production. The name comes from the Ford car factory, where in the year 1907 the
production of the "T-model" was began, realized with the so called "sliding
line". A typical fordist factory was an enormous construction, which was
surrounded by a city. Thousands of mass workers, producing commodities by serial
production, functioned in the factory. The work was extremely simple repetition
of the same phases. It was divided into small parts and it was managed by
tailoristic methods. In some cases the duration of the movement phases was ten
seconds. The work demanded no particular skill. The production was organized in
a very hierarchical way and single workers did not control the totality of the
production process. The organization of work belonged to technical executives,
which usually functioned in separate areas and in the direct control of the
leadership. In the factories the workers used mechanical devices and machines.
Concerning the results the fordist factory was based on large serial productions
of standardized products. The customer's choice was for example the colour of
the car, if even that.
The fordist model of production drifted into a crisis since the late 1960s. The
main reason for the crisis were inflexibility, the difficulties of controlling
the workers and the big investing needs of money and time. Inflexibility was a
problem concerning both the products and the working processes. The products
were not customer-friendly and even a small technical problem in one point of
the line was enough to stop the whole factory. As expressions of the problems in
controlling the workers there ensued strikes, sabotage, absence, general
ineffectivity and work-alienation in the fordist factories. The reasons are
evident: the work was too boring and non-interesting. The low level of skill
demanded for the work did not create "pride" of professional skill. In addition
to this, the workers in the fordist factory did not belong to the traditional
working people, but in groups of population, which had been included into the
factory as the production had expanded. Finally, slowness and the need for large
capitals was characteristic to the fordist model of production. The building of
enormous factories, the infrastructures needed to get thousands of people
within the range of production, the planning of production etc. demanded
projects of many years and therefore series of production needed to last dozens
of years. The factory was unable to follow the world getting faster,
consumer-friendliness, the demands concerning the diminishing of used capitals
and the changes in markets and global economy.