How Henry Ford Saves Men and Money

The Story of a Trip Through The Ford Motor Company's Plant With the Man Who
Guided 50,000 Employees Through a Year of Work With Only One Fatal Accident.
By Louis Resnick. National Safety News, September 18, 1920

Extracted from the original by William A. Levinson The original material, including images, is
in the public domain due to age (1922 or earlier). Highlighting and commentary in footnotes are
(c) 2018. Disclaimer; nothing in this article constitutes formal engineering advice.

There is one flaw in the story that follows. It does not mention the name of the man whose
imagination, courage, and perseverance are largely responsible for the remarkable
accomplishments described therein. The story was submitted to him for correction of possible
errors in fact and when the manuscript was returned his name wherever mentioned had been
carefully edited out and the name of the company or department placed in its stead. When we
asked this man for his photo graph, he sent instead a panoramic view of the plant. We admire
nothing more than genuine modesty and plant spirit such as this man has displayed, but here is
one instance where we feel justified in exercising the editorial prerogative of naming him against
his will. We refer to Robert A. Shaw, better known as "Bob," Director of the Department of
Safety and Factory Hygiene of the Ford Motor Company. 1
—The Editor.

ABOUT six years ago the manager of the compensation department of the Ford Motor Company
came to Henry Ford with a request for authorization to build a larger industrial hospital. No
verbatim report of the conference was made, but I am told the conversation ran something like
this:

Manager of Compensation Department: "We need a big hospital to care for our injured
employees. We owe it to the men to take good care of them when they are hurt, and besides it
will be a good investment because proper hospital attention will enable injured men to get back
to work quicker than they do under present conditions."

Mr. Ford: "No sir, we will not go into the hospital business. We will eliminate accidents instead.
If we owe it to our men to care for them when they are hurt, we certainly owe it to them to do
everything in our power to keep them from getting hurt; and if it would be a good investment for
us to build a larger industrial hospital, it certainly will be a better investment for us to get rid of
accidents. That's vour job from now on. PREVENT ACCIDENTS, even if you have to redesign
our machines or methods to do so."

There you have the beginning of one of the most effective pieces of safety work that America
has seen. Machines—hundreds of them—were redesigned; equipment was thrown out;2
buildings were remodeled ; processes were changed ; workmen were trained; and millions of
dollars were spent by the Ford Motor Company during the intervening years—all to safe guard
the lives and health of the workmen. With what results? Here is one. During the fiscal year of

1
Robert Shaw therefore deserves enormous credit as a pioneer in modern occupational health and safety
(OHS), including the "can't rather than don't" safety principle. National Safety News (October 1922)
includes an article, "48,000 Ford Employees Go Year Without Fatality." While "no fatalities" is taken for
granted in the 21st century (with any kind of workplace fatality drawing immediate and unfavorable
attention as an exception), this was not the case 100 years ago.

This also underscores a parable related to Sun Tzu's Art of War. Three brothers became medical doctors
long ago. The youngest cured serious diseases, so he was known throughout the realm. The second
brother cured diseases in their infancy, so his name never went beyond his village. The eldest prevented
the diseases, so his name remained unknown. We will never know how many thousands of workplace
injuries and fatalities were prevented by Robert A. Shaw's work, but it is past time that he got the credit.
2
Henry Ford wrote of this (My Life and Work, 1922), "Machine safeguarding is a subject all of itself. We
do not consider any machine--no matter how efficiently it may turn out its work--as a proper machine
unless it is absolutely safe. We have no machines that we consider unsafe, but even at that a few accidents
will happen. Every accident, no matter how trivial, is traced back by a skilled man employed solely for
that purpose, and a study is made of the machine to make that same accident in the future impossible."
The need to take corrective and preventive action (CAPA) for incidents and near misses is consistent with
ISO 45001 clause 10.2, "Incident, nonconformity and corrective action."
1918-1919, in the Highland Park plant (the parent of the company) —where 50,000 men and
women were at work throughout the year, with 3,000 punch presses, 20,000 other machines and
70 elevators, with miles of loading docks where 60 giant cranes move at once, with 350 acres of
foundries, heat treating works, drop forge departments, machine shops, chemical laboratories and
railroad yards—in this plant during that entire year only one man was killed by accident. You
will appreciate just what this means when I tell you that if this percentage of accidental fatalities
were maintained by the industries of the country generally, the accidentally killed in these
industries each year would be 760 men and women instead of 22,000, as is now the case. 3

If you will ask the Director of the Ford Motor Company's Department of Safety and Factory
Hygiene, to what he attributes the remarkable accomplishments of his department, he will say:
"First, to the co-operation of our foremen; next to the fact that we endeavor to educate rather
than order our men to be careful; finally—and without this the first two would hardly be
possible—the backing of our General Superintendent."4

If you would ask him for a bit of advice regarding possible methods of developing an effective
safety department within your own plant—whether it be large or small—he would answer:
"Work on your equipment first; guard every dangerous machine and every unsafe spot in the
plant. Then gradually work in your educational campaign. You cannot expect the co-operation of
your men until you have shown them that you really mean to do your share in making the plant
safe."

Let us look first into the organization of the Ford Company's Department of Safety and Factory
Hygiene and its educational methods. In addition to his list of assistants, the Director has a
standing safety committee of 100 workmen and foremen, each selected by his own department.
The Director's immediate staff includes, at the Highland Park plant, two divisional safety
supervisors, two chief inspectors, a chief of hygiene, a bacteriologist, and a follow-up man.
There are also in his department twelve safety inspectors and ten sanitation inspectors. Of the
former, one spends all his time inspecting cranes and elevators, one punch presses, one grinders,
one construction, one operating equipment; six men are assigned to inspect general conditions,
and one inspector is on duty at night. The principal function of the sanitation squad is to clean
drinking fountains twice daily and to spray disinfectants throughout the plant once each day.

3
In other words, the Ford Motor Company was almost 29 times safer than its contemporaries. This was
achieved through occupational health and safety (OHS) techniques that are easily recognizable today such
as lockout-tagout.
4
ISO 45001 section 5, Leadership and Worker Participation, stresses the importance of top management
support.
How Safety Bulletins Are Used at the Ford Plant

Very early in a trip through the Ford plant one realizes that in the matter of posting safety signs
and bulletins the policy is decidedly one of quality rather than quantity. All the National Safety
Council's bulletins are posted in the office of the Safety Department immediately upon their
arrival, and as a new batch comes in those of the previous week are filed in a system of swinging
wall racks where they can be reached on short notice. Through the standing committee of 100
and with 110 bulletin boards, the Safety Department of the Ford Company conducts a continuous
propaganda throughout the year,5 varied only from week to week by intensive campaigns against
specific hazards as supplements to the general campaign.

In addition to the general bulletin boards on which the company carries alternately the Council's
bulletins and those prepared by its own Safety Department, there are in many departments glass
covered boards on which are posted permanently certain bulletins applying to the particular
departments.6 Thus in every department where high voltage current is used, there is posted
permanently the Council's bulletin of illustrated instructions for the Prone Pressure Method of
Resuscitation from electric shock. Wherever compressed air is used there is posted a bulletin
showing how "horse play" with compressed air may lead to death. In each elevator there is
posted 'permanently a bulletin illustrating the most common elevator hazards.

The educational program of the Safety Department includes daily noon hour meetings, nightly
moving picture shows for new employees during the fall and winter months, the teaching of
safety along with instruction in English at the plant's Americanization school, and the
preparation and distribution to the workman of leaflets describing the safe and unsafe methods of
the operations in which he is engaged.7

Every noon two of the Director's helpers go about from department to department, carrying with
them small bulletin boards on which are posted photographs showing the cause and result of the
most recent accident within the plant and also a bulletin or photograph illustrating an accident of
the type against which that particular week's campaign is directed. Thus, on the occasion of the
writer's visit a campaign against running was under way, and at each noonday meeting that week
the workmen heard accounts of accidents that had been caused by running within the plant.

Typical Noonday Meeting

These noon meetings last five minutes or less and are very informal. The safety man walks into a
group of men at lunch and says "Hello fellows; I want to show you a picture of an accident that
happened down here in Dept. Z-43" and the meeting is on. When the safety man is through
talking some workman says "That guy ought to have known better than to run in a department of
that sort"; another asks a question or two, and the safety man is on his way to the next group.

5
Propaganda is any form of communication whose purpose is to influence attitudes and behavior, and it
may be honest or dishonest. A quality policy that is NOT propaganda, i.e. does not influence attitudes and
behavior, is what W. Edwards Deming would call a meaningless slogan. Anti-smoking posters, and
appeals for blood drives, also are propaganda whose purpose is entirely honest and constructive.
6
This supports ISO 45001 Clauses 7.3, Awareness, and 7.4, Communication
7
This exemplifies ISO 45001 Clause 7.2, Competence. How do we train employees in relevant OHS
considerations that apply to their jobs?
The moving picture show is one of the most effective means of reaching the new workman with
the safety message,8 the Ford Motor Company has found. When the new employee checks out at
the end of his first day at the plant, he finds on his clock card a ticket reading:

"YOU ARE REQUESTED TO REPORT AT THE SCHOOL BUILDING IMMEDIATELY

AFTER RINGING OUT TONIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT." (Signed) General Foreman.

At the auditorium the work man sees a safety film, which is both entertaining and instructive; he
hears a brief talk on the value of safety to himself as well as to the company; and he is invited to
come again. Then he is given a ticket which reads : "To the Foreman—THIS EMPLOYEE HAS
BEEN INSTRUCTED IN SAFETY PRACTICE—H E L P HIM START RIGHT."
So much for education. The Ford program of mechanical safety seems to be based on a few
common sense principles. Here they are:

First, keep the place clean;9

Second, make the worker comfortable;
Third, make the machine foolproof, and so far as possible, accident proof.

Let us see how the Ford Company accomplishes each of these things. To begin with, the floors
and windows of practically all the buildings of this huge plant are kept as clean as the floors and
windows of the average American home. It takes 950 men to do this job alone. The floors are
swept continuously, and once a week are scrubbed with boiling hot water and soda mixture.
Sixty tons of rubbish are trucked away every twenty-four hours.

Nowhere is the fact that "light is a tool which adds to the efficiency of every other tool" more
fully appreciated than at the Ford plant.10 There every window is cleaned, every wall painted
white, every windowless spot flooded with artificial light. The windows and skylights are
washed as frequently as is necessary, every glass roof being equipped with rails for an especially
constructed window washing truck.11

8
Use pictures (e.g. before and after pictures that show how an unsafe situation was corrected) and videos
to support the awareness and communication clauses (7.3 and 7.4) of ISO 45001.
9
5S can help here
10
Frank Gilbreth (1911) pointed out that good lighting is the cheapest thing there is in a factory because
of its effect on productivity.
11
The window cleaning sponge on a pole, with a conduit for water inside the pole, apparently originated
at the Ford Motor Company.
 Ford Spends $2,000,000 A Year To Keep The Plant Clean and Says "It Pays' 12

Eleven men in the sanitary department are continuously inspecting the plant. Insanitary
conditions are reported and remedied immediately upon their discovery. The seven hundred
sanitary drinking fountains are cleaned several times a day and all wash stands, waste cans,
drains, sewers, and toilet rooms are sprayed with disinfectant daily.13 Particular attention is paid
to places where men gather in large numbers, such as the employment office and medical
examination rooms, which are sprayed twice a day and fumigated every Sunday. The sanitary
department also helps the hygienic laboratory in checking up the condition of fluids used for
cutting purposes.

$20,000 a Year for Paper Cuspidors

One little detail stands out as typical of Mr. Ford's policy regarding safety and sanitation, which,
by the way, is one of his personal innovations. Like most other plants, the Ford Company years
ago woke up to the menace of the indiscriminate expectorator. Mr. Ford thought it over a while
and then hit on this plan, which has been in effect for several years with entire satisfaction to all
concerned. In each department there is a constant supply of paper cuspidors and sawdust. Each
morning the man who is accustomed to spitting while at work fills a fresh cuspidor with sawdust
and places it near his station. At the end of the shift, lie throws his used cuspidor into the refuse
can. It costs the company $60 a day—$20,000 a year—to provide the paper cuspidors, but Mr.
Ford believes this money is well spent. It costs the company more than $6,000 a day—close to
$2,000,000 a year—to keep the windows washed, the floors swept and scrubbed, and the plant
generally clean, but it pays, Mr. Ford says.

12
Would some kind of fall protection be required for these workers under today's OSHA standards? It is
to be noted, however, that the moveable stairs on which they are working does have rails (they look like
ropes) that would prevent a worker from falling off and possibly falling through an overhead window.
13
The condition of the rest rooms may well reflect on the factory's (or restaurant's, or airport's) overall
attitude toward safety and/or customer service.
How does the Ford Company make its workers comfortable? Principally by exhausting the hot or
impure air and pumping in fresh, cool air by means of fans. There is scarcely a department in the
plant that is not equipped with a ventilating system adapted to the conditions.

$11,000 Safety Device Pays for Itself in Thirty Days

Let me tell you about one of the most interesting such installations. There is in one of the buildings at
Highland Park a department including 97 cyanide furnaces and 17 annealing furnaces. Up to a few
months ago this department was one of the most troublesome in the plant. The furnaces were heated to
1560 degrees Fahrenheit and it was necessary for the workman, standing directly before the open furnace
doors, to work' in a temperature of 133 to 135 degrees. It was impossible to keep men in this department
for any length of time, and during the summer months 8 to 10 cases of heat prostration a day was a
common experience. The situation became so serious that the general superintendent, P. E. Martin, made
a special study of the department and as a result an eight inch metal canopy was placed around each
furnace, making possible the continuant exhaustion of the hot air. At the same time cold air was blown
down on the heads of the furnace tenders, bringing the temperature where the men worked down to 80
degrees.14

This installation was completed last Spring at a cost of $100 per furnace—$11,400 in all. And this is how
Frank Donovan, superintendent of the department, described the results to me. "The canopies have done
away with heat prostrations in this department, the labor turnover has been reduced twenty-five per cent,
the output has been increased, and our working force has been reduced fifty per cent. This ventilating

14
installation paid for itself the first month in the saving of labor alone, by enabling one man to take care of
two furnaces instead of one as before."

TEMPERATURE IN FURNACE 1560 —TEMPERATURE WHERE WORKMAN

STANDS, 80—SYSTEM TO DRAW OFF HOT AIR AND BLOW IN COLD CUTS
WORKING FORCE IN HALF AND ELIMINATES HEAT PROSTRATIONS.

Remodel Buildings for Safety's Sake

"We once tore down almost an entire building in order to make it safe," said the Director of
Safety. "At another time we rebuilt a foundry roof, from a saw-tooth to a monitor type, at a cost
of thousands of dollars in order to provide better ventilation. We spent $9,000 for a suction
system to remove dust from a piston turning operation and the immediate result, according to our
medical chief was a reduction of 22 per cent in requests for transfers from that department. This
installation in a very short time more than paid for itself by enabling us to keep expert workmen
in the department, thereby increasing the production.15

"We had a great deal of trouble retaining skilled men in the acid room of our radiator department
because of skin troubles caused by the fumes. We raised the roof of this room and put in exhaust
hoods over the vats which eliminated the acid fumes with the result that the labor turnover is
now practically nil."

It would take books to tell all that is being done at the Ford Motor Company's plant to make the
workman comfortable.

Making the Machines Foolproof

In guarding machines the Ford policy seems to be that no machine is too large or too small, too
simple or too complicated to be guarded. Even the simple little sewing machine, of which there
are 150 in one department, did not escape the watchful eyes of the safety department. Every now
and then the needle of one of these high speed machines would run through an operator's finger.
Sometimes the needle would break after perforating a finger and a minor operation would
become necessary. When such accidents began to occur at the rate of three and four a day, the
safety department looked into the matter and devised a little 75 cent guard which makes it
impossible for the operator to get his finger in the way of the needle.16

15
Workplace safety is therefore synergistic with workforce morale and worker retention. An
uncomfortable workplace—and note also the turnover in the furnace department prior to the
improvement—may or may not be an unsafe workplace, but uncomfortable conditions could, as shown
here, be symptomatic of a potential safety issue such as heat prostration, dust inhalation, or exposure to
acid fumes. Correction of the problem not only removes the potential for actual harm, but also reduces
workforce turnover.
16
This exemplifies the "Can't rather than don't" safety principle. Instead of warning the operator, "Don't
put your hand under the needle," the machine was redesigned so the operator can't put his or her finger
under the needle. "Don't"  3 to 4 puncture wounds daily, and probably more dangerous then than it is
now because there were no antibiotics and the tetanus vaccine was invented several years later, while
"Can't"  0 puncture wounds daily.
A 75-CENT MACHINE GUARD WHICH KEEPS NEEDLES OUT OF FINGERS
AND PAYS FOR ITSELF SEVERAL TIMES A DAY.

EVERY HAZARD GUARDED. NOTE EXHAUST SYSTEM, GUARD

OVER EMERY WHEEL, BELT GUARD, AND GOGGLES.
Probably the most notable accomplishment in mechanical safety work at the Ford plant has been
the guarding of punch presses. Approximately 90 per cent of the 8,000 punch presses at the
Highland Park plant are now operated by the two hand push button tripping device, developed by
the Director of the Department of Safety and Factory Hygiene, which makes it impossible for the
workman to get his hands in the way of the plunger while the press is in motion. To trip a press
equipped with this device the operator must press two buttons, about a foot apart, so that it is
necessary for him to use both hands. A two-man press so equipped will not trip until four buttons
are pressed at one time; a three man press will not trip until six buttons are pressed
simultaneously.17

The electric push button device on presses requiring two or more operators replaces the red and
green light and the so-called tap-tap systems of signaling which each year takes a toll of
thousands of fingers and hundreds of hands in less progressive plants.

17
This also exemplifies "Can't rather than don't." The administrative control of tap signaling, i.e. "Don't
put your hand in the press when it closes," failed to prevent thousands of amputation injuries a year
throughout the country. The two hand push button tripping device made it so you can't put your hand in
the press when it closes, which reduced the amputation rate to the nice round figure of ZERO.
 PUSH BUTTON TRIPPING DEVICE USED ON 3,000 PUNCH PRESSES
AT THE FORD PLANT SAVES FINGERS, HANDS AND DOLLARS.

"This device has not only almost wiped out punch press accidents, but has increased production
on an average of ten per cent," said the Director. "It has done this largely by eliminating the
fatigue resulting from the operation of punch presses by a foot trip. We require all punch press
operators to use tongs for inserting metal and taking it out of the presses. We have shut down
punch presses and redesigned dies by the hundreds to make them safe. Recently we made
arrangements with the tool designing department for the inspection of drawings of dies before
they go to the die makers, thus saving considerable time and expense and eliminating the danger
at the source. Whenever we improve on a machine we send a drawing of the safety device to the
manufacturer and in most cases he redesigns the machine to incorporate the guard that we
suggest."

In safeguarding the operation of cranes the Ford Company also has distinguished itself, for it is
one of the very few companies that really keep workmen out of the way of traveling cranes. This
is done largely by the use of powerful sirens placed just above the crane hooks and electrically
operated as the cranes travel. The craneways are equipped on either side with steel enclosed
loading balconies.

It would take several books to do justice to the Ford Company's safety work. And from another
point of view the whole story of this work is told in the story of the Ford campaign against the
upturned nail. Long before my trip through the Ford plant I had heard a great deal of this
campaign. I had heard of the boast that the saving in reclaimed nails alone justified the
company's policy of employing a number of men to do nothing but draw nails out of empty
boxes and barrels and loose boards; I had seen a number of the Ford Company's bulletins on the
dangers of the loose nail. But I did not expect ever to spend hours walking through a great
industrial plant, through block after block of receiving and shipping rooms, through acres upon
acres of railroad yards, through carpenter shops, through buildings under construction and others
under repair, to spend an entire day in a plant where automobiles are turned out at the rate of one
every thirty seconds, and throughout such a trip see only two upturned nails. That is exactly what
happened during my visit to the Ford plant. And when I asked how it was done the answer was:
"Simply by being everlastingly at it. We never let up in our safety work for a single day or
minute."

Ford Men Save Time and Bones Even In Boarding Street Cars18

18
I can't see the safety or efficiency principle this picture is supposed to illustrate, but airport shuttle
systems now use "Can't rather than don't." The shuttle trains are walled off from the platform, and the
doors to the platform open to provide access only when the train is present and its doors also are open.
This makes it physically impossible for somebody to fall off the platform onto the rails.