DEPARTMENT 01? COMMERCE

Division of Simplified Practice

Washington

MONTHLY NEWS BULLETIN September 1^ 3 1925* No. 6.

OUE STANDARDS OR THEIRS?

Reports from other countries indicate increasing activity in the

direction of standardisation in mechanical, electrical and other lines*

Progress has been marked in some of these countries, and especially so in

the case of nations which are among our keenest competitors in foreign trade.

Along with the news of this trend, there comes an uneasy question to

the minds cf many American manufacturers; "Will we be able to determine our own future production, or will it be dictated by the practices of industries

of ether nations?'1

Tiie answer is up to the American producers and American technical

organizations set up to carry on standardization work. Progress IS being

made, but not as rapidly as it might be ‘were every manufacturer, every trade

association, and every engineering , scientific or business school to put their

shoulders to the wheel. There is a crying need to 11 sell11 the idea of standards

and their advantages and to wage an intensive campaign in this direction.

One of the most important steps preliminary to standardization is

Simplified Practice. It offers a shout cut to benefits for the manufacturer,

the distributor or the consumer* With cooperation by producer, distributor,

user, and tho technical and scientific bodies in weeding out the excessive,

obsolete and unnecessary sizes, patterns and dimensional differences, a long

step forward has beon taken. One immediate result of such an achievement is

to clear the decks for a more rapid and mere comprehensive study of what shall

be included in standards.

And meanwhile there are benefits to be derived by oach group without

having to await the results of such long-time studios which are essential to

standardization - gains from a more effective utilization of production equipment, distribution machinery, and intelligent consumption.

Nearly 400 industrial groups are receiving the cooperative assistance of

the Division of Simplified Practice in developing simplification programs

whred will weed out tho superfluous. Forty ha,vo taken this step forward and

are beginning to reap the benefits from the elimination of waste - benefits

watch amount to millions of dollars each year. Their answer to the question

is: "Our Standards, not theirs."
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Did you know that

19 industrial countries have national standardizing bodies:

Germany has nearly 1*000 industrial standards, 6c} of which deal

with the machine industry, and the balance with civil and electrical engineering, automotive and locomotive industries?

Norway has joined Germany. Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Hungary,

Czecho- Slovakia, Belgium and Sweden in adopting international paper sizes?

Poland has recently formed a standards committee which is working

on 2 S projects, among them simplification of electrical material, specification

for boilers and cast-iron or pipes, and rules for bridge construction?

Sweden is considering standards of taper shanis for milling and

drilling machines?

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When the national Supply & Machinery Distributor’s Association asked its

members to survey their plants and suggest the fields showing the greatest need

for simplification* it ” started Something”. Already the surveys report the

need for simplifying; bolts, machine screws, Swiss pattern files, cast iron and

malleable fittings* auger bits, rules and tapes, pliers, screw drivers, socket

wrenches, lock washers, steam gauges, radiator valves, oil and grease cups,

brasive materials, cotton and wool wastes, valves and fittings, link chain and

attachments, die stocks and holders, cutters and reamers, lathe dogs, round

adjustable dies, screw hooks and eyes, brick and plastering trowels, escutcheon

pins, wood screws, tackle and snatch blocks for manila and wire rope. Work is

under way for simplifying some of these fields.

* * * * * * Plans have been made for a general conference to standardise sizes of tissuepaper sheets. The meeting will be held October S in the Drake Hotel, Chicago.

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• THE Dental equipment trade, interested in simplification, will have representatives at the conference on simplifying grinding wheels which will mee|

September 23rd in Washington to consider cutting 459>000 sizes and styles' from

its present stock varieties.

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Because of the wide range in sizes of carbon brushes for electric motors,

requests for the Division’s cooperation have resulted in a survey of diversity

as a preliminary to a conference of producers.

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The Division is gathering figures as to the quantity of cans made in 1924

for the fruit and vegetable canning industry. The survey will be the basis for

recommendations to be presented at tho annual meeting of the National Canners

Association, for fewer size variations.

* * >* * * * Strengthening the hands of the Shovel Simplification Committee, the Southern Supply and Machinery Dealers Assn, members have shown a keen interest

in handling fewer varieties of shovels.

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be held October 20 to consider and act on the program,

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Charles A. Bissell, Interior Department Representative on the Federal

Specifications Board, has notified the Chiefs of all “bureaus and independent

establishments in the Interior Department of the going into effect of simplified

Practice Recommendation No* 36 on milling cutters, "which has “been issued “by the

Government Printing Office.

More than SOfo of the potteries, distributors, and hospital organizations of

the country having accepted a simplification program for hospital chinawaro, the

Simplified Practice Recommendation will soon be in the hands of the printer.

Important economics are forecasted by the hospitals.

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The Department of Economics of St. Ignatius' Higher School of Commerce,

Antwerp, Belgium, has ashed the Division for information as to its work, procedure and results, with a view to incorporating simplification in its courses

of study.

* y * * What Simplified Practice meanS to the worker, as well as the employer was

discussed at the Y.M, C.A. Industrial conference at Silver Bay, New York, on August 29, after R. M. Hudson, Chief of the Division, had given an address on

Simplification.

* * * * * "We are heartily in favor of your program and will even go to the extent of

introducing a course of study, or of modifying a course which we already have,

with a view to emphasizing this most important work” , writes Dean J. A. Bexell

of tho School of Commerce, Oregon Agricultural College, placing that school among

the ranks of those which are lining up to '’sell” simplification as an important

factor in modern business.

* * * * * Sam A, Lewisohn, president of the American Management Association, told that

body, in its annual convention, that ’"There is a head thy demand for more and

cheaper goods, stimulated bv the higher standard of living which higher real wages

have made possible", and he continued by sayixjg "In order to meet this increasing

demand for goods and for higher wages which is inherent in this process, we must

perfect cur management methods A' Among the improvements in methods which he cited

was "planning and controlling production process to eliminate wastes of labor

and material". This is in line with what Secretary Hoover and the Division of

Simplified Practice have been assisting industry in doing, and is another recognition of the value of Simplified Practice in making tomorrow's savings come from

today's wastes.

* * * * * The New York Stats Builders' Supply Association is lining up with other

assoc rations to help spread the gospel that the distributor, by inducing purchasers to buy simplified lines, is not only giving the consumer better service,

but is placing himself in the position of carrying more complete stocks of

simplified lines than would be possible otherwise.

5)c aj< >J; Canadian brass manufacturing interests have undertaken to simplify nomenclature and other phases of the plumbing industry * as a result of the pace set

in this country. * * * * *
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