[rotorwrench]

Henry couldn't stand waist so he always found ways to utilize every possible bit of material for every component that went into the vehicles. His way of saving money was to make as much as possible in house and farm out things that were less expensive to manufacture. Purchase of out source items could be contracted cheaply as long as he could promise the subcontractor high volume purchase. That way they made their money on the huge volume of production. When Briggs Body wanted to charge him more for the steel they were using, he nixed that and made them use his steel. Every penny saved could go into making the car that could be sold for the lowest possible price but still profit the company by volume sales. Most everything was still pretty damn good quality for the prices they sold their cars for. Ford Motor Co had one of the largest and cleanest auto production facilities in the world with the Rouge River plant. They made sure the other assembly plants were well constructed for production and well supervised by staff. Henry was no cheap skate.

Henry either liked you or he would have someone fire you. He couldn't fire Edsel though and that was the problem between he and his son. He just didn't realize that Edsel was the best kind of son he could have ever hoped for just the way he was. Almost all industrialists have some kind of weird quirk about them but you have to realize that that may be what made him who he was. Good, bad or indifferent, nothing could fix him and Edsel had to suffer for it.