History Since the Ford Motor Company's incorporation by Henry Ford in 1903, its strategic focus has remained on automobile design and manufacturing. Up until 1970, competition was from the two other manufacturers making up the Big Three Automakers; General Motors and Chrysler. However, starting in the 1970's, foreign competition, mostly from Toyota and Honda, eventually lead to overcapacity within the industry. As more and more developing and industrial nations encouraged development into the automobile industry, overcapacity in …showed first 75 words of 742 total…

…showed last 75 words of 742 total…assembly order sequence. The OTD project was started to reduce the order time from 60+ days down to only 15. b.<Tab/>b. The accuracy of Ford's forecasting is an integral step in being able to maintain the continuous flow of materials from suppliers as well as being able to turn the vehicles around within 15 days. This is the first time that Ford had ever involved the dealers with forecasting the customer demand.