Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-07-28

'The war had sledalrs into many
extravagauces OFF administrations
and accounting We went. thru
the plant, offices and Shops. arsii
made economies which III detail1
later, eliminating everything nom
productive. Then we had acquir< |
ed the Detroit, Toledo and .IroHs
ton railroad. We saw ppssibilis |
ties of redileing the vast atss1r1srt
of capital which wes had formerly
keptstied UP, invested lin goods inI
transit. We foafnd ways. to- ctrtd
the time OUR goods were n.transa!
1T. BY that. move WEI reieasedI
$4,000, 900 tooS.its from f:lnds=ins
vested III stock in transits and put
it to- other uses. Thus, wfTenl
April L came around we had $&, i
600, 600 to meet. $4,000, Oo]ins OBJ
legations. We paid thern aitI
weeks in advance:
But how. could, YOU create
such incense. stffrss of ready CASH.
by r1eer economies !" he was :tsis-
ed.
More economies" Mr.. Fofdsrei
piled.
There's nothing mere about
our econotnies-they'ree the, thing
he continued Take the item of
$2S, 100000 from invest
ment in goods in transit. We were
able to do that by combination
of two things. By using our rail-
road we were able, to speed up|
movement of raw materials to
the factory and movement Of fin
ished cars from the factory to the
dealers. Better methods in heI
factory cut the time needed to
manufacture the material into ma
chimes. Then we stopped carrying
immense reserve supplies of raw
materials. The first economy
made the second possible. Here's
the way it turned out.
Before we got control of the
D. T. & |. it required an average
of p days to haul raw material to
the factory, make it into cars and
get them to dealers: We had. to
buy three weeks in advance OF
need and with no way of knowing
future conditions we had to keep
immense reserves on hand. The
money tied up in these and the
good moving stood continuously
at about $88, 100000.
'But the, early. months Of 1921
brought great changes. Gener-
al cessation of industry: made ma
terials and cars in which to carry
them, plentiful. Then the .: T
&. l. is really one great terminal,
It. crosses every transcoutinenta
line in the country. When stock
consigned to- us reacfles-the d. T.
& T., it can be speeded- along to
destinations. Parts Or cars OUT
bound, can be made into through
trains and thus, the running time
to destination be greatly reduced
In the Offices of the D. r. & I. the,
officials did away. with. a deal of
antiquated-. railroad red tape.
While systems of useless account
ing were abolished. All these
elements combined have reduced
the time of our movement; Of |
stock from the suppliers of raaerI
materials through the factoryI
and itl1e-cars into the hands Of thel
dealers from ~ to, Ia days. And
that is not the e1d-We'll cut i'll
still more. Where before we hadl
$88,OOo,0O0 tied up in mining and
reserve stocks required to 1nakt,I
$4,000 cars a month, now we han.
die the stock required to makeI
1920 cars a month for less than
$o0,OOO,OoO.
"Ofice and shops also came inI
for house-cleaning. We liter !
ally took, out a train1oadtof desks
and furniture and sold them. Wei
told the men that occupied these
desks that back in the shops werel
plenty of good jobs at good paw
If they wanted them: Most OIL
them did. We cut the office forceI
from ,O74 persons to 528.. Tele-I
phone extensions were cut about1
90 per cent.
I'VE went through the shops
the same way.
A comparison of our operat-
ing costs before and after tIie1
house cleaning is really a. start
ling lesson in. what manufacture
ers can do if they look sharp to-
economy. Back in November,
1920, before the house, clearing,
our daily expenses for. labor. aI1dI
commercial overhead charges,
cost materials not included, aver
aged $463,2Od to- get out. an aver
age of 3,l46 cars a day, or $l46l
a. car. Look what we did inI
June, 1921,--$4l2;5W a. day to-
~ r az -