LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Mess Production. The Increased Cost of Non-essentials.
HOW WE BRITISHERS do cherish a catch phrase, once we have got hold of it thoroughly. We worry it to death and use it, time in and time out,: with the slightest possible regard for its appropriateness. Especially do -we roll sonic new jangle of letters or words round our tongues, when, to do so, we imagine, invests us with the reputation of some inner-circle or inside knowledge of things as they are, or as they should be. Do you recall how thousands of us, for instance, but a few years ago, knitted our brows at the sight of a. fractured rod or shaft, spring or frame members, and uttered, with the air of a savant saturated in steel technics : " Crystallized! They all go like that after a few thousand . miles." And, 99 per eent, of us had no ghost of an idea what we meant. We. thought, we had an idea that that nice bright new fracture if put under the microscope, would reveal a ,sort fracture, lunar landscape composed of lumps_ perhaps like sugar. We were not quite sure it is true. But then we knew very well indeed that, unless we had struck very unluckily, the other fellow knew no better and quite probably 'thought so, too. We had not heard of "fatigue-" then, and, if we had, we should have been hard put to it to say what that distressing characteristic brought with it in the way of symptoms.
• There was a period-, too, when we prated learnedly , of viscosity. I knew a learned editor of a technical paper even who told me quite solemnly that "c.c." as applied to engine, rating meant "cubic capacity," and yet he W2A' perpetually chatting about his experiences with 800 and 700 or what not e.e, engines that he had. been driving. I knew a chief engineer of an omnibus company who, in reply to a complaint by one .of his drivers that he thought his differential had given out, with an air of super-technical and unassailable wisdoni snorted: "Differential, is it? Open yer bonnet and let's have a look at it." And; of course, on a Milnes-Daimler 3-tonner you do not generally keep your differential there at all, do you? It was the same gentleman; by the way, who for the first time remarking the setting of the bladea of the fan on. a certain bus chassis, promptly -ordered them, ell to be flattened out.
And once again, here we are all chattering, like a lot of magpies, of "ma-as production." And not one in a thousand knows really what he means by the expression. It conveys some idea of hundreds of thousands of bits and pieces and the resultant thousands of chassis in next to' no time, but, -as to there ,lieieg any difference between quantity production and mass production, such . things are not mentioned in. enlightened society—it is the safer course! Yesterday, saw all advertisement of some new light car maker or other—new to me at any rate. The advertisement showed a photograph. of nearly a dozen, or a dozen and a half, chassis of sorts, and bore some such title as "This is evidence of the mass production methods employed by us," and so oir. Mass production of 18 more or lees finished chassie, and no indication as to whether this whole big batch was the result of 10 minutes or 10 weeks work !
There is a .very great deal of twaddle being talked iust now about proposed output. And it is doing the industry no manner .of good whatever. One can hardly pick up-a paper, to-day, without reading the_ announcement of some. new firm or combination having decided to design a near chassis and tn put in hand ten, twenty, thirty thousand cars for next year's .output. And, presumably, the public is impressed -and, more often than not, deceived. The factories in this country that will produce any very considerable quantities of chassis; within the next twelve months, can easily be numbered on both hands, including both pleasure-car and commercial models. "
The truth is that, at the moment, now twelve months after the Armistice, there is no such thing as mass production of motor chassis in this country. Mass production cannot be attempted with our ordinary factory layouts and plants and without the aids of timeand laboursaving devices of ultra-modern descriptions, and unless the design itself is produced on lines specifically intended for the most rapid assembly, aftex the , minimum of high-class 'and accurate machining. Motion study, routing of material, travelling platforms; to say nothing of--high pressure work on the part of the operatives; are all essential to tremendous output. And tremendous output, in the modern sense of the term, is not attainable, if the pro-duct is to be of the very -highest class. It is possible to turn out huge quantities of machines at lowest cost that are good enough for their purpose, but, it must be remembered that British rnanufeaturing reputation has not been built up on "good enough." it has always been a ea-se of ." better than the other fellows," and I take leave to prophesy that our place in the sun will be maintained, not by mass production, but by quality production in large but not necessarily the largest quantities.
The Increased Cost of Non-essentials.. •
Is there not food for rather deep thinking in the latest orgy of spending by the masses which we have witnessed" during the Christmastide just past? We, of the commercial-vehicle-industry, though keeping going more effectively than many other branches of mechanical engineering, are steadily being slowed down to a state of non-production 'owing to the strike of iron moulders on the usual pretext of the need for more money and less work. The same thing is hap-palling all over the country in all kinds of trades, whether it be hairdressers or gravediggers. One and all ,declare that they cannot live decently On their present earnings. And, whilst all this is going on, we are confronted with the spectacle of the spending power of the masses never having been on such an impressive scale before.' The claim to the right to have more money to spend is one that must always. be considered on its merits. But that the need of it is urgent solely on account of ilia inability to buy what .could be bought before is difficult indeed 'to realize when one sees, at every turn, money being poured out by the lower middle and working classes particularly on 'non-essentials at fabulous prices.
One -is tempted to argue that claims for increased wages must, in future, not be entertained polely on
• the score of increased cost -of living, as they are at
present. It any case, very evident that the present ratio af increased wages to the presumed inereased cost of living is a doubtful one and much of the increased earnings is being turned to new and often extravagant forms of expenditure, for which the nation, as a whole, is not necessarily called upon to stand sponsor. The time has come, it' stands selfrevealed, when further claims tOkeep pace with the increased cost of living must be examined from a fresh standpoint. Only thus can we hope to cry. halt in the present decline towards industrial paralysis, of which the obstinate moulders' deadlock is but one instance. There appears to the writer to be no sound reason why the cost of production should be forced up because of the cost of extravagance.