Walter Flanders

Who was Walter Flanders?

Walter Emmett Flanders was a U.S. American industrialist in the machine tool and automotive industries and was an early mass production expert.

Flanders was born March 4, 1871 in Waterbury, Vermont, the son of Dr. George Flanders and Mary Flanders, the oldest of three children. He was a highly knowledgeable salesman of machine tools when he was recruited by the Ford Motor Company in August 1906 to be what Charles E. Sorensen variously described as "a cost-cutting production manager" and a "roistering genius" "with the entirely unofficial rating of works manager" whose "hiring arrangement included an understanding that he could continue to sell machinery elsewhere with an organization of his own." During his rather short tenure at the young company, he helped tremendously to orient its production operations toward the coming era of mass production. This included introducing the concepts of fixed monthly output and of transferring some of the carrying of parts inventories from the Ford company to its suppliers. It also included rearranging the layout of machine tools in the plant with a view to the orderly sequence of operations. This work formed a foundation on which others at Ford would build as they spent the next five years developing the concept of a true modern assembly line.