“The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person.”

“前一天，完成整个组装过程的工人，平均每人每20分钟组装一台磁石发电机。可是那一天，在这条装配线上的装配组，每人平均每13分10秒钟就组装一台。”

Within a year, the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It wasn't long before. Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to '260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not afford them. Soon, auto makers the world over copied him. In fact, he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile had arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation, everything from toasters to perfumes are made on assembly lines.

不到一年，装配时间便减到5分钟。1913年福特改革了装配汽车的全过程。用绳子钩住的部分组装好的车辆被拖着从工人身旁经过，工人们一次只组装上一个部件。不久，福特公司一年就生产出几十万辆汽车，在当时是一项极出色的成就。这一新的系统如此有效而且经济合算以致他将自己生产出来的汽车削价一半，降至每辆260美元，使那些在此之前一直买不起汽车的人都有能力买了。不久全世界的汽车制造商都仿效起他来。事实是，他写了一本名为《今天和明天》的书介绍他的革新，来鼓励他们这样做。汽车的时代到来了。今天，在机器人和其他形式的自动化推动下，从烤面包机到香水，一切的一切，全都是在装配线上生产出来的。

Edsel Ford, Henry's great-grandson, and a Ford vice president: “I think that my great-grandfather would just be amazed at how far technology has come. ”

埃德索尔·福特是亨利的曾孙，也是福特公司的副总裁之一。他说：“我想曾祖父对于今天制造工艺取得了如此长足的进步是会惊叹不已的。”

Many of today's innovations come from Japan. Norman Bodek, who publishes books about manufacturing processes, finds this ironic. On a recent trip to Japan he talked to two of the top officials of Toyota.

今天的许多项革新都来自日本，出版过很多关于制造流程的书籍的诺曼·博德克认为这一点具有讽刺意味。不久前他在访问日本时曾同
丰田 两位最高官员谈过话。

“When I asked them where these secrets came from, where their ideas came from to manufacture in a totally different way, they laughed, and they said. 'Well. we just read it in Henry Ford's book from 1926. Today and Tomorrow.'”

“当我问他们这些秘密来自何处，他们从什么地方获得这些想法以采用完全不同的制造方法时，他们笑了并且说，'唤，我们只不过是从亨利·福特在1926年写的那本书《今夫和明天》里读到的。'”

His company has reissued the book because, he says, manufacturers everywhere can still learn from Henry Ford.liuxuepaper.com