EFFECTING SAVINGS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 21

EFFECTING SAVINGS

MODERN METHODS WORKSHOP PRODUCTION Improved facilities for working in tho railway workshops aro boaring fruit and a typical case of tlio saving which it is confidently' estimated will result from tho workshops reorganisation is given by tho Minister of Railways (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) in the Railways Statement. "In- my Statement of 192u," says Mr. Coates, "I indicatod that provision was being made for the adoption of aedurato costing-methods aud production schedules. Tlicso are now in full oporation, and the new shops will start off with fully trained staff in both theso connections. The results achieved so far arc sufficient to indicate that the savings anticipated have not been over-estimated. For instance, in the four main workshops where: the new modern machinery on the first year's quota was temporarily iustalicd, and where production schedules were introduced to routo the progross of tho work, the number of days engines were out of service under repairs has been reduced from fifty-five days ,'(1025 average) to thirty-eight days for a complete overhaul, from thirty-six days to twenty-four days for a heavy repair, and from fourteen days to cloven days for a light repair. These reduced figures represent the average of all the engines passed through the main shops during the past year. "As an example of the results o± improved methods and facilities, the building of two hundred J sheep wagons at Newmarket Workshops has shown what has oven already been accomplished. These wagons were a duplicate of similar previous ordors, so that an accurate comparison can be made. The cost of wages per wagon in 1928 was £50 5s lid, as compared with £67 lis 7d previously. A reduction of 27 per cent, is thus shown."