Winning the Peace with
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STANDARDIZATION
By H. J. Evans 0 NE of the most significant achievements during the war years was Britain's successful fight to increase her industrial output. In the face of labour loss and dilution, enemy action, material shortages and other difficulties, the supply of arms to our fighting Services was maintained and multiplied.
The aircraft industry found its struggle to increase production greatly aided by carefully planned standardization of design. This not only resulted in a greater output of parts, but frequently produced superior components. Large scale production schedules allowed longer manufacturing runs, and more complete tooling often permitted the redesigning of a component and use of more • suitable or more readily available material.
Successful Precedents Typical examples of this latter effect are the accumulator trays, parachute stowages and pilots' seats so familiar to all those interested in Service aircraft. Moulded in reinforced plastic, they are at once lighter and more efficient than the many different designs which they replaced, although they could not economically have been produced by one company for its own exclusive use.
The standards committee for the industry included representatives from all the aircraft-designing companies. These concerns were encouraged to offer for consideration their current designs for any component which the committee thought desirable to standardize. Some parts were accepted just as the designers submitted them; other designs were
modified, and wholly new designs commissioned when none of the types offered was considered suitable.
The task of production for the entire industry was then delegated to one factory. In fact, so attractive did the industry find standardization, that there is little doubt regarding its continuance and extension in the future.
Competition Overseas The automobile industry has done little or nothing in this direction, but to compete on more favourable terms in foreign markets it may be forced to accept some degree of standardization. One can appreciate that esthetic considerations make this highly undesirable, so far as private cars are concerned, and it is true that some proprietary parts have more or less become standards.
However, irritatingly small differences in size or fit make necessary a large range of sparking plugs, contact breakers, tyres, etc., and any reduction in this range will promote economy in production and servicing.
It is the commercial vehicle, however, that offers the greatest scope for rationalization. Here, where parts are more functional, and individual appearance less sought after, standardization will improve efficiency, as well as lower manufacturing and replacement costs.
As a separate consideration, a standard layout of controls and electrical systems would, no doubt, facilitate fleet operation and maintenance, but, generally speaking, it is as regards manufacture that I am now considering standardization.
The following are parts which might well be standardized by our commercial vehicle manufacturers. The list is not intended to be fully comprehensive, but it will serve as a basis for illustration: (1) Road wheels; (2) steering wheels; (3) instrument 'panels; (4) accumulators and mountings; (5) road lamps; (6) radiators; (7) radiator fans; (8) brake shoes and facings; (9) drivers' cab doors; (10) cabs.
Items 1, 6, 8, 9 and 10 are, perhaps, not such obvious cases for standardization, but the following points should be observed: It is not proposed to make one component do every job, but to encourage each manufacturer to use the standard part available for any particular application. Several standard wheels, to suit the popular weight-carrying groups, would thus be offered, big tyre-size choice would be narrowed by the standard rim sizes adopted, and smaller stocks of replacements would need to be carried.
Radiator Assemblies • A radiator could be designed whereby a number of small blocks was assembled into a complete radiator unit. Vehicles and operating conditions of all types could then be catered for by the simple expedient of varying the number of the small blocks used to build the unit.
A case similar to that of the road wheel is presented by brake shoes and facings, and again a range of several sizes would have to be offered to cover the popular weight groups.
Cab doors, usually very stiff structures, require a great deal of tooling in relation to their importance as a part of the whole truck, and the spreading of this cost over several makes would certainly lower production costs for all concerned.
Item 10—cabs—will probablycause most doubt, but to bring its full benefits to industry, standardization must be accepted on as wide a scale as possible, and the cab possibly represents the limit to which the motor trade can go.
It offers a good example of a component where far greater tooling can economically be undertaken if production be for the major part of an industry. If made in two sizes, the cab could in each case be supplied as a finished unit for fitting to a lorry, or with a plain, flat, rear bulkhead when required for incorporation in a closed vehicle • Lamps, wings, bumpers, etc., would, of course, be of a similar pattern, and wind screens of only one shape. To go a step farther, and to gain wider scope for the designer using the standard parts, an opening at the front end would be filled by a standard " firescreen on a bonnet-type vehicle, and by a standard-shape radiator grille on a forward-con', trot machine. To preserve individuality among vehicles, the radiator grille could be of distinctive design, so long as its overall shape fitted the opening provided in the cab front.
We have constantly been warned of the imperative need for expanding the volume of our exports, and nobody doubts the gravity of the present situation, or that we will have to meet fierce competition to win overseas trade. Price is one of the major considerations in the fight for foreign markets, and standardization can help the motor industry to lower prices to meet this competition.
The problem which now faces the motor industry is the same as that which confronted aeroplane manufacturers during the war. Standardization then smoothed the way to make a greater number of superior components with the same labour force.
Indeed, it may well be that the suggested Government insistence on some standardization of automobile components might have been prompted by the war-time success of " comrnonization " in other fields. Let the motor industry face the facts itself, and there would be no -cause for official direction in this matter; standardization brings its own rewards and is its own champion.
If I have used the word " standardization " over and over again, I makemoapology; it-was a factor that helped to win the war, and it can help win the peace.