The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-11
AUTO BUSINESS
BECOMING STEADIER
Methods of Manufacture
More Sound and More
Thorough

InOfOugh
Face to face with the fact that The
| automobile factory of today is the
soundest theory of business eff1cienc!
put into whirring belts and Wheels in
| to screeehing grinders and lathes ant
! into the ink that runs a red fingel
across the balance sheet to profit OF
loss. the business man is asking wha
was the matter with the automobile
industry. He is wondering why, il
| the early days, it was so much like
| the lightning flash out of which tow.
ers and roof tops emerge from thu
PACK night as suddenly as they are
| plotted out; why, today, it is like sun
! light in which all things stand GU
| clearly in their inseparable inter-re
| lations and Undergraduates.
| The answer that will satisfy hin
! will have to epiton1ize the history o.
the automobile Industry. Tell hin
that at first, it was like a runaway
flywheel which has slipped its bel
| and is trying to run the engine and
| he will nod his head and say Waste
| effort" That is partly the truth. Blu
state the proposition as it was put by
Fred w. Haines, General Manager O.
the Regal Motor Car company, to sew.
eral auto makers and advertising mer
! In a recent gathering in Detroit
! 1.-THE whole trouble said Mr.
Haines was Just this. The automobile
industry started to run a marathon
! in the dark with extravaganza ant
had to pull up in the stretch It's
now putting the fresh energy and use.
fulness which was being burned III
| in the race into well ordered activi-
| ties and has developed efficiency OF
| operation into an Organization OF
| commapding Importance in the bust
| ness world.
"you turn a corner here and bump
| into a fact. It takes you back to the
days of 40 when, frenzied with gold
| fever, men, young, middle-aged, old
| left their stools, benches or swive
| chairs and descended on California
All were going to be rich and that
| quickly. Each, with his pan and
| shovel, staked out his claim and few
erfshly worked to scratch his fortune
out of the sands and rocks. That's
the way men rushed into the automo-
bile game. It was a game then. In
way, the men who staked out the
| first automobile claims gave nc
thought to saving of labor, sparing OF
| expenses, organization orr stability
And. like the miners. some succeed
ed. but most of them did not.
'.It all leads back to the red line
across thebalance sheet for that's the
manufactured today reads that baro-
| meter closely. rolls up his sleeves and
then gets busy in the factory and in
the sales field among the agents. The
revolution in the business methods OF
the automobile factory came as quick
ly as PortugaPs and differs from Por-
tugal's in this; it is sounder and more
thorough.
This is how the revolution has
been effected For the slip-shod
methods of manufacture, the auto man
has substituted proved standards of
operation. For the immature and cost
1y body designs of the early days, he
has substituted the straight line car
making machines now Of beauty and
power. Yesterday his engineers We're
piling up expense and wasting efforts
on useless experiments to chase fads
and fancies; today they work in har-
mony with the rest of the plant be-
cause new formulate have been evol-
we'd from the old Yesterday he built
the chassis; today the perfect chassis
is built to fit the graceful bodies. The
gain is the owners. PrJportionately.
the early automobiles were as heavy
as a locomotive, with certain faults
that wasted horsepower with every
stroke of the engine Today with all
the faults corrected, strength and
flexibility have been gained without
excessive weight and with saving of
horsepower elimination of tire trou-
BILE, wear and tear on the drivers
nerves.
Yesterday there were unnatural
methods of manufacture. The plants
were being run with too much of the
wild excitement of a newspaper shop
getting the paper to press an hour
early. Over estimating the market,
trying to fit the people to any kind Of
car rather than the right car to the
people, the maker ran his plant into
a state of chaos that meant poor
workmanship, poor quality of cars at
high cost heavy overhead expenses in
the plant itself and the owner paid the
price with the word luxury sugar
coating the bill.
1.-The factory faults had to be elimi-
mated. Better methods of inspection
came first, cars were right before they
left the factory. Safer methods of
testing followed, then right methods
of selling and advertising. But back
Of all these there had to be a perfect
harmony in the factory-efficiency
screwed up to the top notch and work
ing every minute for the ultimate
consumer.
''Faultless workmanship is the aim
now. That means that forced over
time work, nights and Sundays will
have to go. An instance of this trend
in the business revolution is. the Regal
factory All the work there is done
by daylight. There is no overtime
and no Sunday work in this factory
There are other auto factory managers
who are following this lead, realizing
that the mechanics, the engineers,
the assembler's work is best done in
his daylight hours when his energies
are fresh and keen to the work in
hand. R
'The reform has gone aheld. When
man buys an auto now, his connec-
The factory managers are looking af-
the car. The good will of the people
and the dealers is assiduo3sly sought
and kept. That means the car must
satisfy. Sale conditions are thorough,
ly studied, properly to estimate the
output. Automobile engineers are
agreed that the auto today is a. high
1y specialized vehicle of pleasure and
business that is as great an advance
over the auto of the first feverish
days as the Pacific type locomtive
is over the dinky little wood burning
engines that bumped the first trains
over wooden rails in Maryland and
New York.
''Now all this efficiency or operation
directly concerns the owner With ov-
erhead expenses in the factory. cut
to the quick, the owner is getting a
high quality of car, representing the
best workmanship at a price that is
within reach of the man who is earn
ing but $500 a year. Prices of au-