Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world’s third largest automaker based on vehicle sales in 2005. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Metro Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in 1903. Ford now encompasses many global brands, including Lincoln and Mercury of the US, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover of Great Britain, and Volvo of Sweden. Ford also owns a one-third controlling interest in Mazda.
Ford has also been one of the world’s ten largest corporations by revenue and in 1999 ranked as one of the world’s most profitable corporations. In recent years, it has not fared as well and since 1995 has lost market share in the U.S. for ten years in a row. In December 2006 the company announced that it expects Toyota to overtake it as the number 2 auto-maker in the US market.
Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, especially elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford’s combination of highly efficient factories, highly paid workers, and low prices revolutionized manufacturing and came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914. He is not related in any way to the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Rudolph Ford, though they were both raised in the same state, which is Michigan.
Ford has a contract, along with other manufacturers, to make Budget Truck Rental’s trucks.