Summary of Arthur Herman's Freedom's Forge

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 In early February 1900, the SS Norge arrived in New York harbor, carrying five hundred Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish passengers. The ship was carrying young William McKinley, the president. Theodore Roosevelt, the governor of New York, had signed a treaty for building a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

#2 Knudsen was a skilled mechanic, and he knew America was the place where he could flourish. So he set off for New York, with his suitcase and thirty dollars stuffed in his pocket. He landed a job not far from where he had disembarked, in the Seabury shipyards in the Bronx’s Morris Heights.

#3 Knudsen spent years working with machine tools and steel alloy, and in 1911 he was hired by Ford to help build the Model T. He was shocked to find all the machines idle one morning, as Ford had already sold the company.

#4 Ford’s Model T was made up of nearly four thousand parts. Eight years earlier, Walter Flanders, a veteran machinist, had shown Ford the value of making as many parts as possible interchangeable. He had learned other things at Keim, especially from its manager William Smith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669380740

IRB Media

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Insights on Arthur Herman's Freedoms Forge

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In early February 1900, the SS Norge arrived in New York harbor, carrying five hundred Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish passengers. The ship was carrying young William McKinley, the president. Theodore Roosevelt, the governor of New York, had signed a treaty for building a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

#2

Knudsen was a skilled mechanic, and he knew America was the place where he could flourish. So he set off for New York, with his suitcase and thirty dollars stuffed in his pocket. He landed a job not far from where he had disembarked, in the Seabury shipyards in the Bronx’s Morris Heights.

#3

Knudsen spent years working with machine tools and steel alloy, and in 1911 he was hired by Ford to help build the Model T. He was shocked to find all the machines idle one morning, as Ford had already sold the company.

#4

Ford’s Model T was made up of nearly four thousand parts. Eight years earlier, Walter Flanders, a veteran machinist, had shown Ford the value of making as many parts as possible interchangeable. He had learned other things at Keim, especially from its manager William Smith.

#5

Knudsen, the man who would figure out how to make Ford’s assembly line work, learned many economic lessons from his mentor, Bill Smith. The key to mass production was not uniformity or even speed, but creating a continuous linear sequence that allowed every part to be fitted where and when it was needed.

#6

Knudsen and Kahn made the Ford emblem a symbol of America’s industrial might. They had triggered a second industrial revolution based on mass production, which lowered costs by making more, not fewer, of a product.

#7

Knudsen had some sketches made for a new car design, and showed them to Ford. They could begin production at the River Rouge plant where they had built the Eagle boats, while finishing up the Model T line at Highland Park before converting over to the new car there. Ford looked over the drawings, and noted that it was heavier than the Model T.

#8

Alfred P. Sloan, the new executive vice president of General Motors, was intrigued by the news of Knudsen’s resignation. He had always been fascinated