Recognized as an expert in the field of machine tools, in 1905 he obtained a contract to produce 5,000 crankcases for
Henry Ford. His success led Ford to recruit Flanders to the
Ford Motor Company in 1906 to become the company's production manager" During his two years at Ford, Flanders helped orient its operations toward the coming era of mass production, including introducing the concepts of fixed monthly output and of transferring some of the carrying of parts inventories from the Ford company to its suppliers. He also rearranged the layout of machine tools in the plant to improve efficiency by creating a more orderly sequence of operations. This work formed a foundation on which others at Ford would build as they spent the next five years (1908–1913) developing the concept of the modern
assembly line. Flanders left Ford in 1908 to co-found the
E-M-F Company, which was acquired by
Studebaker in 1910. Later he founded the
United States Motor Company, and he reorganized
Maxwell after the fall of the United States Motor Company. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson consulted with Flanders and other automobile industry leaders, including Henry Ford, William C. Durant, and John Dodge to determine the best methods for producing vehicles to equip the U.S. military for World War I. Flanders played a role in the
Rickenbacker Motor Company, founded in 1921. Flanders also produced more than 2,000 motorcycles from 1911 to 1912 of which about two dozen still exist today. An example was on display at the AMA Motorcycle Museum in Columbus, Ohio. Another is at the
Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. , Birmingham, Alabama. The single-cylinder motorcycle had a displacement of 483cc. ==Death and burial==