Walter Emmett Flanders (March 4, 1871 – June 18, 1923) was an American industrialist in the

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...

and automotive industries and was an early mass production expert.

Early life

Flanders was born March 4, 1871 in Rutland, Vermont, the son of Dr. George Flanders and Mary (Goodwin) Flanders, the oldest of three children. He was educated in Vermont and left school as a teenager to begin working as a mechanic and machinist.

Career

Recognized as an expert in the field of machine tools, in 1905 he obtained a contract to produce 5,000 crankcases for

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

. His success led Ford to recruit Flanders to the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

in 1906 to become the company's production manager" During his two years at Ford, Flanders helped orient its operations toward the coming era of mass production, including introducing the concepts of fixed monthly output and of transferring some of the carrying of parts inventories from the Ford company to its suppliers. He also rearranged the layout of machine tools in the plant to improve efficiency by creating a more orderly sequence of operations. This work formed a foundation on which others at Ford would build as they spent the next five years (1908–1913) developing the concept of the modern

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...

. Flanders left Ford in 1908 to co-found the E-M-F Company, which was acquired by Studebaker in 1910. Later he founded the

United States Motor Company The United States Motor Company (USMC) was organized by Benjamin Briscoe in 1910 as a selling company, to represent various manufacturers. It had begun life as the International Motor Company in 1908 in an attempt to create a major consolidati ...

, and he reorganized Maxwell after the fall of the United States Motor Company. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson consulted with Flanders and other automobile industry leaders, including Henry Ford, William C. Durant, and John Dodge to determine the best methods for producing vehicles to equip the U.S. military for World War I. Flanders also produced more than 2,000 motorcycles from 1911-12 of which about two dozen still exist today. An example was on display at the AMA Motorcycle Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

Death and burial

Flanders died in Newport News, Virginia on June 18, 1923 as the result of complications following a car accident in which he'd been involved three days earlier. According to friends, he was en route to his home in Williamsburg when he tried to pass another car and lost control of his. He sustained a broken leg and several internal injuries, and his death was attributed to kidney failure. He was buried at Williamsburg Memorial Park in Williamsburg. He was inducted into the

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to a ...

in 1994.

Citations

Sources

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External links