Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures and distributes automobiles in 200 markets throughout six continents. With more than 324,000 employees worldwide, the companys core and affiliated automotive brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury and Volvo. Its automotive-related services include Ford Motor Credit Company. Other Ford Motor affiliates include Hertz rental cars. Ford Motor entered business in 1903, when Henry Ford and 11 business associates signed the companys articles of incorporation. The pioneering industrialists gave birth to what was to become one of the worlds largest corporations. Perhaps Ford Motor s single greatest contribution to automotive manufacturing was the moving assembly line. First implemented at the Highland Park plant in 1913, the technique allowed individual workers to stay in one place and perform the same task repeatedly on multiple vehicles that passed by them.