Today's Snippet
Currently iam reading Essentials of Supply Chain Management by Michael Hugos and i came across this interesting section. It is about something that used to happen in the days of yore when companies indulged in Vertical Integration.
"In the first half of the 1900s Ford Motor Company owned much of what is needed to feed its cars. it owned and operated iron mines that extracted iron ore, steel mills that turned the ore into steel products, plants that made component car parts and assembly plants that turned out finished cars. In addition, they owned farms where they grew flax to make into linen car tops and forests that they logged and sawmills where they cut the timber into lumber for making wooden car parts. Ford's famous River Rouge Plant was a monument to Vertical Integration - iron ore went in at one end and cars came out at the other end. Henry Ford in his 1926 autobiography, "Today and Tomorrow", boasted that his company could take in iron ore from the mine and put out a car 81 hours later."
This might sound incredible in today's world where every company focusses on its core competency, outsourcing all other activities. Well, the world has come a long way !!