What is Fordism?

Well guys this is a brief explanation of what Fordism means...Although we already ended up giving a definition in class, I think it's important to catch a glimpse at this piece of writing I found on the web, in order to increase a little bit more our knowledge for a better reading comprenhension...

The fordist model of production was based on the large factory and mass production. The name comes from the Ford car factory (whose owner was Henry Ford), 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. ♦♣♠♥...See ya...♥♠♣♦