MASS PRODUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 3

MASS PRODUCTION

CABINET SEES FOND FACTORY

H.Z. EMPLOYEES AND DOMINION MATERIALS [Special to the * Star.*} WELLINGTON, November 12. The Prime Minister, the tilt. Hon. M. J. Savage, members of his Cabinet, and members ot Parliament visited the factory of the Ford Motor Company of New Zealand Ltd., at Lower Hutt, this week, and were able to see all the processes of building a completed vehicle ready for the road. The company’s factory is a distinctive largescale modem example of mass production, where the chain system operates and everything is timed to the minute. Tho body-building line was perhaps the most interesting of all the departments visited. Here machines hold the body parts together while they are welded, amid a shower of sparks, by batteries of arc welders, gun welders, and bar welders. Steel front-ends, floors, sides, etc., are all made up from smaller parts, and finally, after a series of most interesting operations, emerge from the main “ buck ” it completely welded, all-steel reinforced-with-steel Ford body. This is placed on a moving slat conveyor for the finishing touches. After travelling 130 ft it is transferred to an overhead mono-rail conveyor, there to commence a long and interesting journey through the paint division. After the guests had had luncheon in a spacious reception hall, the managing director (Mr G. H. Jackson) officially welcomed his visitors, and gave some details of what the factory had achieved in its 13 months of existence, and what was intended in the future. Mr Jackson said that ho appreciated the opportunity of showing to Ministers of the Crown and members of Parliament what was being done in New Zealand by his company. The factory that was being visited that day was actually tho most-recently built of the British Empire chain of Ford factories, and an that account the equipment installed was equal to, or better than, the equipment used for similar operations elsewhere. The factory was doing far more than the actual assembling of partially, built cars and trucks. Many of the operations were definitely of a manufacturing character. The plant was established in keeping with the fundamental Ford policy of building on the spot to ensure the minimum waste of materials and human effort, and to effect prompt and efficient distribution of its products. The New Zealand enterprise was in accordance with both Government and public desire for the development of industries for the employment of New Zealand labour. The factory had been in operation only 13 months, and there had been delivered from it 7,734 completed cars, tracks, and tractors. Expenditure in New Zealand during that period for wages, duty, and payment for local services and locally-manufactured materials had exceeded £BOO,OOO. Wages alone had amounted to over £190,000. The number of employees on the roll was 649. Apart altogether from the men employed directly by the company, the Ford dealer organisation spread throughout New Zealand comprised 72 separate concerns employing a staff of approximately 1,450. In addition, the Ford industry directly or indirectly, provided employment for numerous other people engaged in the supply of goods or services to the company and to its dealers. Mr Jackson stated that arrangements had been completed for New Zealand mills to supply the company with its cloth for upholstery requirements. Previously most of the cloth used was imported from Canada. Tho factory represented a fixed investment for land, buildings, and equipment, of over £200,000. Designed to produce 40 units a day, it had already outgrown that capacity, and extensions of the factory had been authorised, involving an expenditure of £70,000. When this work was completed, the factory would be one and a-half times its present size, and the total floor area would be 190,000 square feet. All components for the cam and trucks built by the company were imported from sources within the British Empire—Canada and England. TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALAND HANDS. A tribute to the company’s New Zealand employees was paid by Mr Jackson. With the exception of three, including himself, every person employed in tho enterprise was engaged in New Zealand, and they had adapted themselves to the work in a thorough-going and capable fashion. By the use of mechanical devices the company had endeavoured to change hard work into congenial occupation. Short speeches of a complimentary character were made by the Minister of Finance (Hon. W. Nash), the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Hon. D. G. Sullivan), Minister of Lands (Hon. Frank Langs tone), and the Minister of Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong). • The Prime Minister, Mr Savage, did not remain to the luncheon, as he had to return early to Wellington to prepare for the work of Parliament in the afternoon.