Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1921-12-14
THE GOVERNOR
OUTLINES PLANS
(Gov. Hardness in Success)

UUlLlIvN fLANS
(Gov. Hardness in Success)
Four manufacturing companies In
one Vermont county have sprung, in
q way, out of one company. Yet, the
original company is 10 times bigger
than formerly, the second transplant
ed company is nearly equal to it, and
so is third. The men who founded
the "offshoot" factories all used to
work in the "parent" factory, where
they imbibed at least two common
principles of management. These
five companies and one other in an
other city, have come under my close
observation, either as manager or or
ganizer or as an intimate friend OF
the managers. The personality of the
several men at the head Of the re-
spective companies has been the great
est element in their success, but two
common factors Of simplifcation run
through the success Of all six: first,
specification; then, ,stabilization.
Each of these Industries manufac-
lures a different product from the
others. Each specialized On only one
or at the most two articles. Each
SIdDluZeO us IdcIOTy ana SAFES OF
ganization for several years with the
least possible change. AS a result,
each of these industries is perform
ing a special service which tends to
make it world-known, and none COM
pete with the others. The history Of
their profits shows that the big profit
comes after sterilization.
The Jones and Lamson machine
shop was established as far back as
1849. In 1889 it had $50 workers.
from some points of view, rather
larro shop for a small mountain town
without a railroad, but entirely too
small for it's aim to equip any machine
shop completely from it's own product.
When / came there 1 found that it
was making several lines of machine
tools, including engine lathes and tur-
ret lathes of five or six different siz-
es and designs-some 81 machines in
all. Now $50 men cannot make Sd
different machines and become habitu-
ated Or skilled in the routine manu-
facture of any one >of them. So l
picked out from the line one turret
lathe with excellent capabilities and
insisted on specializing on that. We
advertised nothing but that lathe,
turned all the workmen in the shop
to making it, and laid out our shop
machines in the correct sequence for
production work on it's parts. The
engineers who had previously scat
tered their efforts on 81 production
goals now concentrated on developing
this one speciality.
Previous to the change the Jones
and Lamson lathe had been fairly
well known; after it became a special
ty, every machine shop in the coun-
try soon became so familiar with it |
that in shop parlance the name is alb
breviated to 81 & L.. ALI over the
world those initials now mean one
kind of machine, not fifty. Every
machinist instantly visualizes the
term. The sales momentum Of this |
popular Identification is enormous.
The sales campaign emphasized ser
vice, the variety Of work that the
same machine would do, and the many !
would replace. Many factories have
special ~ & L" departments. All
the machines have come from lit !
tie Vermont hill town Of 1000.
When this change was first made, in |
1889, small machine shops in outlying
locations were becoming obsolete on
account of the establishing of larger |
units in big industrial centers which !
more effectively.
Vermont is one Of the suburbs of
the country. Our problem was to es-
tablish q prosperous industry in al
suburb. ALI obstacles were overcome
by simplification-by setting out to |
one specially better than |
any body else could do it.
The net capital Of the company in |
1889 was sac, 900 after subtracting
an Impairment. The impairment was
soon made up, changed to a surplus, |
and the company has paid good divi- |
dends steadily.
Inaugurating this simplification was
not easy. First there was an argu-
ment against scrapping so many other
lines for which the company had es-
tablished sales. The treasurer recalls |
one instance of protest when the man.
ufacture Of one line Of ordinary lathes !
was ordered discontinued where it
stood. A lot of the lathes were in
We stopped the machines,
took off the special tools, loaded the
castings on trucks, and ticketed them
to be as old iron. Some Of them had
work partly done on them.
One Of the directors protested at
this waste of good material. "You
know perfectly well that you can sell
,hese lathes," he said.
eyes, we can sell this lot" the |
treasurer replied. "But we will have
TO stop making them sometime. So
why not stop now, and begin the
On something that will in the
end be more profitable? If we make
his lot and 20 on making the next |
lot and the next We will never STOP"
Still this director could not see the
,oint. The apparent economic waste
ranked with him.
every we'll We will make you
orcrosition," said the treasurer. eve !