Intensified Production Effort
Page 38
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What Britain's Commercial Motor Vehicle Manufacturers are Doing to Keep the Allied Armies Supplied With their Essential Requirements in Lorries and Equipment for Mechanical Transport
EALIZA.TION of what is meant by intensified productive effort may be thought to be appreciated by reference to data which-are quoted or published. Realization
only comes from seeing. It was in that way that we came to realize what the diversion of one manufacturer's energies to meeting war needs has meant. We saw one day's output, similar to that of the day before and of the day before that, and less than that which is anticipated for the following day, drawn up outside the works on the occasion of a personal visit to one munitions, factory the other day.
In pre-war days the Works are fully engaged turning out commercial vehicles and cars to the number of thousands per week. We have appreciated that fact for some time. But, on this day, we saw, lined up, waiting to be driven away by members of the A.T.S., vehicles which, in number, exceeded our belief; and, besides, there was a number of cars and vans for export, another regular daily effort, approaching half that which the army was receiving. The export trade is being maintained notwithstanding. this exemplary concentration of effort on munitions.
• Results of Concentrated Effort • In the factory in which the lorries were being made it seemed as though all preconceived notions of quantity production must go by the board, being quite surpassed by the results of this concentrated war effort.
It is manifestly impossible to describe, yard by yard, our itinerary through the works, alongside travelling conveyors, through paintshops in which the spreading of paints never seems to cease, in erecting bays where construction is everlastingly uninterrupted; wherein and whereon a crowded line of bits and pieces is almost imperceptibly converted into complete and running vehicles. Space, if no other consideration, forbids the prolixity which that would involve. What we can and will do, is, metaphorically, to throw a spot-light here and there on what is to be seen.
Try to get this composite picture in view. On the ground floor, chassis are built; on the first floor, bodies for those chassis, and, on the second floor, the cabs for the same.
Chassis erection proceeds in orderly fashion, along the conveyors until a point is reached where, from the height of the second floor,' the finished and fully equipped cabs, also conveyor erected, are lowered sweetly into place on those chassis and, further, to another point where the body, also painted and complete to the last detail, is also lowered, this time from the comparatively near-by first floor.
• The Cab " Threaded " Into Position • And, with us, please watch the cab being " threaded "— no other word fits—on to the chassis which, be it remembered, already has all its essential components in place. Watch the cab being threaded over the steering column, round and about the pedals and controls, and over the rear end of the engine, until it settles sweetly in place, after the lapse of seconds only, as a liner comes safely and easily to its berth in a crowded dock.
And, as for detail—imagine the two halves of a complete steel cab; the front half including the dash and half the roof and the back half the rear part and the other part of the roof, being "crash-welded " together into one, an electrical process which occupies no more than the twinkling of an eye.
Or, again—what the eye doesn't see on the finished product, but is none the less important for that—the way in which all woodwork joints on the bodywork are painted before being made, thus ensuring long life and freedom from trouble.
Al! this was observed in half a day in one only of the many of Britain's. munition factories, where the output is actually more, in vehicles, per day than the whole vehicle A36 complement of the mechanical transport of the "Army of 1914!!!
All the foregoing might be regarded as almost commonplace in the light of present-day mass-production methods, if the vehicles being made were those standardized in peace-time, and therefore in production in August of this year; if what we saw was merely a speeding-up of peacetime output. That is not the case. The 'design of the vehicles we saw being produced at such speed and being driven away in such prodigious numbers per.day is something which, only yesterday, as it were, was presented to the makers.
The state of war has been in being for only 3i months. In that brief period that design has been translated into production, not merely one model, but several, the quantity production lines have been modified to suit, and almost full capadity reached. That is no mean effort and affords convincing proof of Britain's will to win, as interpreted by her commercial-motor-vehicle manufacturers. For this is only one in a country-wide chain of those manufacturers, a sample of the whole, and a representative as well as a good sample.
• Peace-time Needs Surpassed • As indicating the real meaning of that effort, it should be appreciated that the requirements in the way of heavy types of wheeled vehicle is considerably in excess of that which actually existed in the country before the war. With certain provision for export trade, the importauce. of which must not be overlooked, the whole productive capacity of the country is being utilized in the way we saw it being used at this one factory.
Moreover, it is rapidly being increased.
It is a fact that at the present time production of the heavier types of mechanical transport vehicle is proceeding in this country at a greater rate than anywhere else in the world.
Now for some facts about this particular factory.
On the 'outbreak of war the entire resources of the factory were rapidly turned over for the Ministry of Supply. Existing layouts of equipment and production " flow "were scrapped and replanned, a process which involved night and day work in nearly every shop in the works, Time schedules for the manufacture of individual parts and assemblies and the intricate dovetailing of mass-production operations had to be reorganized. The complete changeover of one shop from passenger-car production to the manufacture of Army truck bodies, for instance, was achieved in a single, working week at a cost, including additional equipment, of £30,000.
• Types That Are Being Produced • The vehicles being produced are of three different types, and the works are Meeting the requirements of the R.A.F. and Royal Navy as well as the Ministry of Supply. A large percentage of the overseas trade is being maintained and an effort is being made to keep normal trade activities going. The dealer organization is developing service educational and similar facilities for Any and R.A.F.
Mr. Leslie Burgin, Minister of Supply, addressing a meeting of Press representatives after the tour of the works, referred to the factory as ". . . a miniature of Great Britain at war." He said that Britain's effort could be measured in terms of money or size or effect or by results. He said that he did not care how the measurement might be made. He was convinced that in any event the answer would be the same; that it was demonstrable that the effort which this country is making is greater than any comparable effort there ever has been in world history. He ' believed that at no time has the might of the British Empire been greater or its fighting forces better or more adequately equipped.