New Britain herald., 1928-01-14
f()RbS FILES ARE
 BUSINESS ORACLE.
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 PoYdd Slhsnabship

personal buying isy reached in the planes of Henry Ford. according to a representative of . local manufac- turing concern which has sold its products to the Ford company. Not only are the Ford buyers free from sentimentality in their purchasnE. but they are equipped with such an array of statisttcs that they can sse as accurate . price on . product as the man endeavoring to sell 1t can do. The Ford statisticians and lah- oratories are 70 well equipped that they can tell within hvs per cent what 1t costs to produce anything from . pin to locomotive.
 A salesman making an sfeort to obtain an order from the Ford com. pany nnds from the first moment of his interview with the purchasing agent that he must know absolutely what he is talking about or he will be at the mercy of . man with more knowledge of the salesman's own line. His initial price is slashed by the buyer and finally . compromise is reached. The salesman leaves . sample of his product and il. told to return later.
 When he does 70 he is told deh- niteiy how much it costs his concern to manufacture the. merchandise in question, and the Ford purchasing agent makes his best offer for . tremendous quantity. If the sales- man is able to recover from the shock of having his own firm's costs quoted at him, the deal goes through on Ford's terms.
 The secret lies in the laboratories of the Detroit automotive concern. In bese are experts who can take any product, anaiyxe. and figure out within five per cent what its maker has to pay for material. labor. oyer head. risk of loss and every con- ceivable item. This is figured out on the grand scale Of the huge num- Der which the Ford concern wishes to buy, and then the final quotation is given to the purchasing agent. In this way products are bought at minimum price which. however. leaves . satisfactory margin of pro- fits for tho manufacturer when the size of the order is considered.
 When the order has been filled and it ts time to seek another, the salesman is in for another shock, as his natural assumption that a re- peat sale will be easy is instantly shattered. For in the meantime the Ford company has been securing hg- ures of rival concerns manufacturing tho same article, and if they are lower there is no hope of . repeat order. Some allowance h made for good service on the original order. however. Knowing that the concern which furnished 1t can duplicate its performance satisfactorily. the Ford buyer allows 1t . margin of five per cent over the other bidders, but if one of thess quotes . figure beneath the margin the order is transferred.
 Furthermore. If the original man. ulctures moro than required Of the article purchased. it finds itself left with the surplus on its hands, for 1t was not told to make more than . certain number and the extra ones were manufactured at its own risk.
 It ts by such micrometric figuring and close adherence to cold facts and digits that tho Ford company has been able to produce its famed low-pric4d cara The methods are rigorous and seem unfair at first thought, but when understood fully by both parties they result only in the elimination of all waste and the placing of the transactions on an im- personal but efficient basis.