MASS PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 30

MASS PRODUCTION

A DUST-FREE DEPARTMENT

An interesting description is given in the "Manchester Guardian" of a visit to an up-to-date British radio factory where mass-production methods are in full operation.

In^ the vast works, which cover an area of 270,000 square feet, sit nearly 2500 girls at benches along which travel belts. Each girl has her own special task and in the course of the day's work will repeat hundreds of times one single operation.

Of a staff of 3200 the girls outnumber the men by about three to one. The men, however, are entrusted with work demanding c higher degree of technical training and sklil, and in many cases the girls are supervised by men.

One of the most interesting aspects of the work of manufacturing wireless sets is to be seen in the condenser department, where 16,000 condensers are producd each day. So important is cleanliness that the operatives in this department work in a chamber all the air of which has been passed through an oil filter to remove particles of dusi. Summer and winter the air is kept at a standard degree of humidity. Jt is very dry. and as the amount of humidity is predetermined it can later be extracted from the condensers.

Before being engaged in the condenser department the girls have to pass a health test. They must not suffer from dandruff of the scalp. They are not allowed to carry food or fruit into the room, and they must not brush their hair or powder their faces while at work. It is also the rule that they should wear white overalls so that dust may be more easily detected.

A department of the firm makes a study of the motions of the operatives in carrying out any set piece of work. All the equipment used by z.' girl is so arranged on the bench that she need make only a small number of bodily movements in using it. When a girl is seen to be wasting effort a film is taken, discussed by the experts, and then shown to the girl in slow motion. She then realises her faults and is able to eliminate them. In this way the firm secures a greater output and the girls, who are paid on piece rates, are abla to increase their wages, sometimes by as much as 60 per cent.

From .the assembling of the parts to the packing every wireless set passes along 1200 feet of belting between rows of operatives. If one were to reckon the journeys made by the individual parts it would be safe to say that by the time it is ready for dispatch every set has already travelled miles.