The Penny Attacks

In all its 43 years, the Ford Motor Co. has by tradition been closemouthed about its profits & losses. Last week, before the Jefferson City, Mo. Chamber of Commerce, Ford's executive vice president, Ernest Robert Breech, broke with tradition. He announced that Ford's loss for the first nine months of 1946 was a whopping $51,600,000 (if this figure still stands at year's end, tax rebates would cut this down to $32,900,000). Reasons: wage increases, shortages, suppliers' strikes.

He added, "We are going to have to earn back these losses before we can do many things we would like to do--things like retirement plans and plans for more stabilized employment"--and expansion. One of the things shelved, along with the new, cheaper Ford, was the $50,000,000 research and engineering laboratory.

With millions going down the drain, young Henry Ford's new team was trying, among other things, to plug the holes by saving pennies. And most of the penny-pinching was being done by Vice-President and Purchasing Agent Albert Jesse Browning (TIME, May 6), who learned about Detroit production as No. 2 Army procurement officer during the war.

Stripping down a car to the thousands of parts Ford buys from suppliers, Browning took a long, hard look at the pieces. That nickel-plated horn button emblem, couldn't that be replaced with a painted emblem? It could and would be. Savings: 8.9-c- per item; total saved, $40,000.

Suppliers of roller bearings, window fasteners, floor mats, etc. were subjected to the same kind of buying he had once practiced at Montgomery Ward's. Examples:

P:Buying nearer to assembly operations; Ford's Fargo, N. Dak. plant will henceforth get batteries from Minneapolis instead of from Indianapolis. Savings in shipping charges: $127,917.

P:Mercury grills, now die-cast, will be made out of stainless steel stampings to save approximately $101,250.

P:Elimination of two-tone paint, nickel-trim caps on the steering-wheel crossbar. Saving: 49 1/2-c- per item.

P:New type car wheels which take less steel and paint. Savings: $104,750.

By getting rid of such production frills which add nothing to car performance (and may save car buyers dollars eventually), Browning hopes to pile up savings of $20 million, based on a "normal" million car year (slightly more than current production: 3,800 units per day). Only a shift into high-gear production could make up the rest.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.