Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1921-12-14

will sell you the castings and the
parts Just as they stand, for the price
Of scrap iron. We will throw in all
the patterns and tho jigs and fixtures
that cannot be used on our turret
lathe. Then you take them away and
manufacture them at some other plant
Of your own, but not here. The profit
or loss will be yours.
The director snapped up the
chance. He made several lots Of the
lathes: He sold one or two lots
Then he began to discover that the
product was getting a trife obsolete
and there were any number of other
manufactures Of the same product on
the market who made competition
fierce, for all of them had to exist on
similar products, instead Of each spec
ializing on one product. Machines
on which specialists put intensive at
tention were making progress and
crowding out the general lines. The
former director came out of the trans
action with a considerable loss.
Too many directors are an obstacle
to specialization, especially if they are
the wrong kind Of directors. Each
director is likely to get attached to
some pet product, which he thinks is
world-beater, although his impress
sion comes only from the outside and
he doesn't get really accurate work
aday view of it as do the men inside
the factory or sales organization. So
when any proposition comes up to cur
tail activities he naturally favors that
linz He looks at the factory frac-
tionally instead Of as whole. The
man whose sense Of proportion is
warped is not good director. OF
courso it is well to have one director
from outside the immediate factory
organization, to get an outside point
of view, if this man has correct Judg-
ment.
With too large a directorate, how
ever it is difficult to assemble all the
members regularly. In good times
the outside directors are especially
prone to stay away and content them
styles with receiving their dividends.
But when dull times come, similar to
the one that we have been passing
through, they Immediately begin to
attend meetings to look after their IN
terests, and their tendency is to vote
for temporary measures which Will
bring back their dividends as soon
as possible. This interferes with
planning Tor SCaOlIty.
Members of the active organization
realize that slumps are a part OF
business, that it is difficult to make
money during them, and that this is
the time to look forward and prepare
for good business. Our company used
to have seven directors. Now we
have three: the president, the treas.
urer and the general manager. all OF
whom are active every day IN the
business. When we want anything
done we do it. The business value OF
this has been demontrated several
times.
Simplification, once achieved, was
firmly stabilized. After the Wnoie
plant became trained in the motions
Of making one standard product, 1t
was kept going through the same mo-
tions for several years. This was al,
so hard to do. With a complicated
product like turret lathe,
many improvements suggest them
selves day after day. The man with
4 mechanical mind likes to put the
newest improvements on each new
niece of product that he sends out.
Being of a mechanical turn Of mind
myself, with a very human fondness
for nv own new ideas, / found It hard
Ia resist this tendency. But l did re-
sist it. not as an inventor, but as
business man. Making a change every
rsrTI, chonanwe ca
day is not manufacturing. Putting
on every new design that comes TO
mind means making a different prod
uct every week. We would again be-
come in effect a job shop, not fac
tory.
Nor did the mechanical excellence
Of the product suffer by abandoning
these ideas. Many, or most, OF the
put on today wouio
turn out tomorrow to be unnecessary.
The only perfect invention Is the one
lust invented, that hasn't yet had
time to be tried out. The inventors
opinion of it will surely fade tomor-
ROW or next year. Meanwhile sup
pose we had spent much money on it,
disrupted our shop, changed our Gus
toner's methods and disrupted his
habits Of using the machines, and in
terferred with our own sales. Be
cause we refrained from doing this,
the shop men soon learned by repeat
!, action exactly how to make every
standard part most nearly perfect.
Tho essential quality of the product
improved.
Meanwhile the economy of the shop
also improved. Repeated practice
brought the lowest labor cost, the least
motion between machines. The shop
worked on regular schedules. The
shop management knew in advance
when a lot Of machines were going to
be finished, and could schedule de-
liveries and sales. The whole organ
ization was trained to steady flow
Of work.
This machine of human habits is
more important from a business
standpoint than the product machines
The business manager who wants to
make any profits must build up a ma
chine, and then let it alone so that 1t
may do un'r tcrruptedly what it was
built for Profits are made only by
continual oreration. Any change in