Henry's Lieutenants

Ernest Carlton Kanzler

Ernest Carlton Kanzler 1892-1967 "// had always been our policy at Fordfor everyone to start at the bottom. Kanzler was one of the few exceptions, and largely for that reason, I think, Mr. Ford avoided him." —Charles E. Sorensen* Alawyer by education, Ernest Kanzler, a relative of Edsel Ford by marriage, was invited by Henry Ford to work at the Ford tractor plant. Although of substantial benefit to Ford Motor Company, Kanzler was too closely associated with Edsel to please Henry. Henry Ford has stated, "Both Edsel and Kanzler should have been bankers.,, Ernest Carlton Kanzler was born May 29, 1892, the son of Dr. Karl and Mathilde Keller Kanzler, who were natives of Bavaria and of Baden, Germany, respectively. The father came to the United States in 1878, the mother having already reached this country. Ernest was born in Saginaw, Michigan, attended public schools in that city, and enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1912. He then entered Harvard Law School and won his LLB degree in 1915. His first position as lawyer was in 1916 with the firm of Carpenter, Butzel, and Backus of Detroit. On June 19, 1917, Kanzler married Josephine Hudson Clay of Detroit . She was the sister of Eleanor Hudson Clay, whom Edsel Ford had married in November of the previous year. The Kanzlers and the Edsel Fords were to remain close friends for the rest of their lives. Their two homes were near each other on Iroquois Avenue on Detroit's east side. Henry Ford's first contact with Kanzler was at Fair Lane when the Kanzlers were guests. Kanzler's law firm had been hired by both John Dodge and the Chicago Tribune in legal cases against Ford. Kanzler was doing research on these cases detrimental to Ford. Ford, it seems, was able to persuade Kanzler to abandon the practice of law to join Charles Sorensen and himself in manufacturing Fordson tractors in Dearborn. Under Sorensen, between 1916 and 1920, Kanzler handled scheduling of materials and shipment of tractors. He was able to save mil- *From Charles E. Sorensen , My Forty Years with Ford (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956), p. 307. 147 Henry's Lieutenants lions of dollars by synchronizing the arrival of parts with assembly and shipment to keep inventories extremely low, production rapid and orderly . This "just-in-time" delivery of materials together with precise scheduling of work made the Henry Ford & Son Tractor Plant unusually efficient. In 1920, when tractor operations were moved to the Rouge, Kanzler was made production manager of the Highland Park plant. During the economic depression of 1920 to 1921, Kanzler assisted in lowering the price of the Model T, minimizing inventory by shipping vehicles promptly to dealers, and obtaining payment in time to pay for the materials from which the same vehicles had been made. Transactions from beginning to end were completed within 60 to 90 days. Inventory float was cut by $40 million. While working directly with Edsel Ford at Highland Park, Kanzler carried out a program of branch plant expansion. The previous work of William Knudsen had ended when Sorensen pushed Knudsen aside. The program under Kanzler (1921 to 1925) cost $125 million and resulted in thirty-one branch factories. In 1921, Kanzler became a director of Ford Motor Company of Canada . Following, in 1923, he became second vice president of Ford Motor Company and its subsidiaries, vice president and director of Lincoln Motor Company, and director of the Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad. During the years 1923 to 1925, when Kanzler managed manufacturing directly under Edsel Ford, Model T vehicle production rose to more than 2 million annually, with production costs and prices at their lowest ever. Edsel Ford was handling administration while Ernest Kanzler managed production scheduling. It was not until 1955 that Ford Motor Company again produced more than 2 million vehicles. In 1923, Edsel Ford with Kanzler organized a national advertising program whereby a fee of three dollars per car was collected from each dealer. These advertisements were widely publicized but did not name individual dealers, merely urged, "See Your Nearest Ford Dealer." Kanzler inaugurated within the Ford Motor Company the well-known tenday reports of dealer sales and stocks in order to anticipate dealer orders and schedule production accordingly. In April 1923, Kanzler convinced Henry Ford, who was not at all in favor of installment buying , to introduce the "Ford Weekly Purchase Plan." The plan required an enrollment fee...